It's been awhile

So, it's been awhile since I've written a blog. Life has been insane!! So about two weeks ago we decided we need to move to Provo or Orem. WOW!! Making that kind of a decision sure sends your life into a whirl wind. We finally found an apartment that we are really excited about, but we need to wait another couple of days to find out if we got it. We're pretty sure we did seeing as they didn't even advertise it. It's in South Provo, which is a little more South than we wanted but it will work. Anyway, I can't wait until the next three to four weeks are over, especially the next few days. Randy and I have been so on edge and ornery lately, it's hard when you don't feel like you know what's going on with your life. We're way excited to move though, it will be a lot of fun to be closer to everything. Well, that's about all I have time for right now. I need to write another blog soon though, I have a few cute pictures I want to post. Anyway, until then, have fun!!

Ever thought you missed it?

Ok, so have you ever had a time in your life where you felt like you lucked out and missed something that you didn't want to do? I've had a couple of experiences that I can think of, the first (I'm sure I've had more than this, but these are the two that I remember): You know how when you move into a new ward they generally make you speak and introduce yourself? Well when we moved to Elk Ridge, they never asked us to speak so I thought we got out of it, but I was wrong, it just took them about a year to ask us. The second, you know how just about everyone has an experience with their children cutting their own hair, or that of a sibling? I thought we missed out on that with Katie, but today she proved it's never too late to experience that. Randy changed Zoe, and in the five minutes it took to do so, Katie found a pair of scissors and cut some of her hair. Thankfully you can't even really tell that she did, but it just made me realize, you're never in the "clear" with things like that. Oh well.

I realized today just how much I love my kids, I've been sick, and I tried to take a nap today, Zoe was asleep, so I knew my window was short, I was trying to get Katie to stay in her room. Finally she did, but I only got about 15-30 minutes of sleep before Zoe woke up. Thankfully though I've found a way to be able to snooze on the couch, all I have to do is put in the Nature movie we made, put Zoe in her bouncer and keep Cheerios on her tray. So I did that today just so I could relax and hopefully get some of this pressure in my sinus' to subside. As I was laying there, all I could do was watch Zoe, I am just so amazed at kids, they truly are a miracle. We all are, it was so fun to watch her get excited over things, waving her little arms. How can you look at babies, and reflect on the complexities of the human body and not believe in God? How can you believe that we just evolved, or just happened to come about. It just doesn't make sense to me. I struggle sometimes, and forget the miracle that my children are, but I have been trying to do better at constantly remembering that they're not my children at all, they're Heavenly Father's children and he has trusted me to take care of them. How I hope I can do a job that would make him proud. I know in moments of weakness I am the exact opposite of what he wants for his children, but I also feel that in moments when I slow down and try to be understanding I am closer to the Mother that God wants me to be. I do love my children, and I love my husband!

Speaking of my husband, yesterday I had one of those moments where I realize how much I love him and how blessed I am to have him. It's been five years now since we were first married, and although it hasnt' always been easy it has always been fun. I used to think that the marriage that Randy and I share was more or less average, everyone had a marriage like ours, but I am coming to realize that's not the case. I'm sure there are other people that do have one like ours, but I've heard so many people say that there were times that they wanted to get out. I have never felt that way, Randy and I have never yelled at each other, we've never really fought, we've hurt each others feelings before, but we always talk it out and we always forgive each other and move on. I love my husband so much, for the wonderful friend he is to me, and for the awesome father that he is to our three girls. They adore their dad, I love to watch him play with the girls, and I can't wait to see him pal around with his son (just so you know, I am not making an announcement, not for another year). I am so grateful for my family, not just Randy and the girls, but for my parents and siblings, and Randy's parents and siblings. I love them all so much!
I'm grateful for the wonderful blessing of families!

Harding Reunion

So last night we had a Family Reunion on Randy's mother's side of the family, the Harding side. It was a lot of fun, we had a talent show and then a dance it was kind of funny though because our family was pretty much the only ones dancing. We had a lot of fun though, I sang a duet with my sister-in-law LeeAnn, and Hailey and Katie sang I'm Trying to be Like Jesus. They did a really good job! I was so proud of them. I love to hear Hailey sing, it's so cute. There were a few other talents as well, and we found out that Randy's cousin was headed up to Salt Lake today for the American Idol auditions, he's good enough to make it so we'll see what happens!! We also got to watch Grandpa's flowers blossom. He has flowers that blossom at night and then they die the next morning. It was so awesome to actually get to watch the flower open up. Grandpa is an amazing gardner. So I've had some pictures I've wanted to post for a while now. These were taken a few weeks ago at a park in Payson. We went and met a friend of mine there and our kids all played together, she has two, a little girl whose a year and a boy who is almost three. They all had a lot of fun.

Camping

Ok, so we went camping this weekend, it was a lot of fun but it's so stressful with little kids. But we all had fun, and I got to see me cousin Steven who I haven't seen in eight years, so it was really awesome!! We went camping with my mom's family, it should have been my family and all my uncles and their families. However, we haven't had everyone together for about five years now. I really miss hearing my uncles and my mom talk about growing up. Sometimes I wonder how they survived to adulthood. Poor Zoe, though, she didn't have a good day Thursday because of me. I had her in her car seat to feed her, so I didn't buckle her in. Then I took her in to the trailer and put her on the bench and was trying to set up her playpen in the middle of the trailer to lay her down for a nap. All of a sudden I hear a bang and I look over and she's on the floor with her car seat on top of her. What happened ( I found this out later when I saw her do this) was she sat up and the car seat was too close to the edge of the bench, and she fell out. I felt pretty bad!! Now she has a big sore on her nose. Then later that night, we put her down to sleep and then we brought the other two in later, well Katie threw a fit and woke Zoe up. So we brought her out with us, Randy was spraying her with Off and Zoe turned her head and the mist got in her eyes. Poor thing, on top of all this, she's cutting her top two teeth right now. It was really sad. Here's the damage:




These were taken after she had a bath, this morning as we were leaving she had a face only a mother could love, she was so dirty and her nose was so red! Poor thing, I feel like such a terrible mom. Just a note, her sore looks worse then it is. It's really just a scrape, it kind of looks like a gash in the picture but it's not. It almost just looks like a bruise, just really red. Then, I almost thought we adopted black children for a while, I can't believe how dirty two little girls can get!!
They had fun, I'm just glad I put them in clothes that I'm not partial to. We did have a lot of fun, though, we ended up going to Payson Lakes and we let the girls swim, we didn't bring swimsuits so we went ghetto style! Hailey swam in her underwear and undershirt and we just took Katie's diaper off and put her onesie on and let them swim. They had fun, and we were able to get some of the dirt off. It was a ton of fun!! Really stressful but a lot of fun!

The Zoo

We were able to go to the Zoo on Tuesday, it was a lot of fun. The girls all seemed to enjoy it, the favorite part of the Zoo was the Elephants. They had a little show with them, and it was really cute to see. The girls talked about seeing the Elephant pee and poop for the next couple of days. They are so cute!!! I wanted to post a few of my favorite pictures from the afternoon.



The cutest though, was that Zoe fell asleep while I was holding her.

Then I gave her to Randy so I could take the other two to the bathroom. Randy went to the van to start it and get it cooling down. When we got to the van, this is how we found them.

It was a lot of fun, I was so glad we went. Oh, I forgot, my other favorite part was the white alligator, that was pretty cool!!

One of those days!!

So Saturday was one of those days where I would have gladly given Katie to someone else for the day. Everytime I turned around she was into something else. She came into the living room and was rubbing something into her hands, and I could see something around her mouth. Now, I don't understand this at all but she loves lotion, not only putting it on, but she eats it. I know, disgusting, hopefully this is a phase she'll grow out of. Anyway, I asked her what she had and she told me it was lotion, well, I could smell it and it only took me a minute to figure out that it was Desitin. So I quickly ran into her room and I found this:

Then after I took this into our room to clean, I found another toy covered in Desitin. The next thing she did was take the strawberry syrup lid off and was eating it, she had strawberry syrup all down her shirt and some on the floor. Then she spilled water all over the highchair tray. I was so ready for bed time that night. Oh yes, I forgot the last thing I found out she did. I found the teething tablets and we used to have three quarters of them left, and now we only have a quarter left. When I asked Hailey if she ate them she said, "No, Katie did." So I asked Katie if she ate them and she said she did. At least she was honest about it. I was so tired and frustrated. Oh well, I guess that's what you get with a two year old. I just don't remember this phase, I'm sure that Hailey when through the same phase, I just don't remember. I guess it balances itself out, because one minute you're ready to put them in a room for the rest of their lives and the next they melt your heart. I guess that's kids for you!

Our little Zoe