on bunnies and battle wounds

for a few days last week we had a bunny adopt us. her family found her yesterday and she's back home now, but it was fun to see this little guy hopping around. Ana loved to try to pet it.



On Saturday Dave and I went mountain biking. It was so fun! It was my first time, and it was really fun. I am so out of shape, which I hate, and I walked my bike up a lot of the mountain. I crashed on the way down, and got a few battle wounds. I can't wait to go again! It a really fun date.

fishing

Dave brought Ana home a surprise a few days ago. Her very own fishing pole. She was so excited. She was jumping up and down and spinning the reel and talking about it for the rest of the day. With a big hug she said to Dave, "Thank you for... Thank you for my... Thanks for... Thank you, Daddy."

When Dave got home from work that night they went out to practice casting. So cute.

why i love being a mother

My kids are busy kids. High maintainence. Intense. Sometimes out of control. Most days by the end of the day I'm exhausted and drained emotionally. I suppose they get some of their intensity for me. I've never been accused of being overly calm and collected. Emotional, yes. Irrational, yes. Calm and laid back, not so much. Most days I feel like I am not great at my job.

Ever since I was little, I wanted to be a mom. I played house until it was too embarrassing to admit. And even after that. I am so grateful that I am a mother. What a blessing these two little spirits have been to me.



What makes it worth it:

Ana saying, "Happy Mother's Day, mommy. Its your day."
"I love you"s, hugs and kisses.
Jack giving me big smiles and reaching his hands up to me.
Snuggling with Ana on a chair to read stories.
Hearing people say how cute my kids are.
Knowing that nobody takes as good of care of my kids as me.

Happy Mother's Day!

note to self

Next time you can't find Ana's blanky right at bedtime, don't offer different blankets. This will result in a 30 minute temper tantrum. Instead, offer a doll, and she'll be asleep in minutes.





p.s. the second picture is from a few nights ago when she fell asleep on her own. Incidentally, I did find her blanky in about 5 minutes after she fell asleep - in an recently emptied cupboard in the entertainment center.

new stuff

Actually, just one new thing. But, it's the biggest thing we have purchased since being married. We just went outside where it was parked and took a few quick pics before the sun went down.


It is a 1996 Mazda B2300 with about 97000 miles. A gutless 4 cylinder with a manual transmission. Just what we wanted. We weren't specifically looking for a Mazda but that is what was available - and we like it. It was fun driving down to Utah with all the cash we needed to buy it. I am glad to know that even though we have two cars now, we still have zero car payments.

It rides really well for a little truck, has almost brand new tires on it, gets good mileage, and is pretty quiet on the road. Best of all - Erin has the Buick all to herself and can go wherever she wants, whenever she wants. She is pretty excited and I feel all extra manly with my gutless truck - I can carry... stuff now.

Here is one last picture of us all tired out after the photo shoot.


Also, as a side note - This is awesome...

This truck has the factory tape deck stereo. And, if you can't tell, that is my handy dandy Tape-->CD converter that I have had for like a million years. You know, the one that plugged into the headphones of the CD player and had a fake tape-type thing that tricked your stereo into thinking it was playing a tape? Yeah, I have kept that thing with my portable CD player for a long time and have contemplated chucking it many times. I am glad I didn't. Now I can listen to the ipod in the truck and I didn't have to buy anything new to do it.

four down infinity to go...

a few things that ROCK about my husband of {4} years:

1. his daddy skills
2. he is SUPER smart
3. he downloads awesome CDs for a surprise for me
4. he is all about serving other people

there are so many more things, but i'll stop there.

Happy Anniversary, Dave. I love you!!!

every kid is different

I can't believe Jack will be a year old soon. I remember thinking that Ana was so big and could do so many things at this age. Jack still seems like such a baby to me. I know that he can do just as much (if not more) than Ana could. He crawled at a lot younger age and is almost walking now. Plus has has a mouth full of teeth, and Ana had none. But still. He's still a baby to me. Ana has always been a little girl. I guess maybe part of it is that Ana has always been really expressive - even as a teeny little thing. Jack is a boy through and through.

a momentous occasion occured tonight

(This has nothing to do with the picture, but I thought I would post the pic anyway)

When we moved into this apartment 6 months ago, Ana moved from a crib to a normal twin sized bed. I didn't know what I would do for bedtime because up until this point I had put her in her bed to cry it out. So we tried putting her back to bed every time she got out - but that got old fast. We tried locking her in. We tried sitting in the rocking chair. One of the big problems was that it would take sooooo long for her to fall asleep that Jack would be ready to go to bed by then. But if he was asleep first, she would be too noisy and wake him up. Eventually we fell into the routine of putting Jack to bed, then laying next to Ana in our bedroom until she fell asleep. Its worked pretty well. I read her a couple stories, then turn the lights off and in about 15 minutes she falls asleep.

Tonight Dave was at his class. I had gone to the store and hoped that the kids would fall asleep on the way home, but they didn't. So, I told Ana that while I put Jack to sleep, she could sit on my bed and look at books. She actually stayed on my bed, which was a miracle in and of itself. After I read her a couple stories, she told me she wanted to look at books some more. What the heck, let's try this. I thought. So I walked out of the room and let her look at books.

15 minutes later she was asleep on my bed, with her arm wrapped around "Raindrop Plop" and her blanky snuggled up with her.

It was really nice.

I think I might try it again another night.

god moves in mysterious ways

Isn't it interesting how nothing ever works according to plan? As Shaela said:

1. It's good to have a plan.
2. Things will never go according to plan.
3. It really doesn't matter!

When we moved here a year ago we had a plan.

Dave had a job lined up.
We were going to buy a Suburban.
We would live with his parents for a month while his brother finished up the apartment.
We would get into medical school.
We'd move in August for our next great adventure.

We've been here a year now. Last May some crazy things went on with Dave's original job and he had to switch employers. We could no longer afford the Suburban, or any vehicle and have been a 1 car family all year. The apartment took longer to finish up and we ended up living with his parents for 5 months. And we didn't get into medical school.

Next month we're moving out so that Rick's boy can live in this apartment. We're going to be moving out in August anyway, so it all works out for everyone. Thinking about moving has made me really think about the last year.

Things definitely haven't gone according to plan.

I guess its one of those times when you really just have to have faith that God knows what he is doing. And I guess He does.

Because we saved money on rent and food last summer, along with the generosity of others, Dave was able to go to Peru for an expedition.

He also received a scholarship to cover to costs of applying to med school.

I have still been able to stay home with my two wonderful kids.

Ana and Jack have loved spending time with Rick and June and "the boys" and Grandma and Grandpa and cousins. Its been good for them.

Dave has a really good job, with good co-workers, and a great boss who does everything he can to make sure Dave is getting the hours he needs.

Now we have a month to move and I'm sure things will work out. I guess things are working out already. Perhaps they work out all along when we know who to put our trust in.

Everything else really doesn't matter.

spring has sprung

It finally feels like spring around here. The warm weather makes me SO happy and productive. I've hardly stopped, and even though my house still looks messy, I promise it is a lot cleaner...

Today I did laundry and hung my sheets on the line. I think it looks so idyllic. I love the country life!



We also washed the car. I won't tell you how long it had been... too long! It was a fun, busy day and I love this weather!