May 30, 2011

How to celebrate a 5th Birthday...

Start by going to get Ice Cream Dressed like THIS....
With your BEST FRIEND (Ashlyn Okamoto)
Then have your BF stay the night dressed like twins and staying up ALL NIGHT after reading a FANCY NANCY book (presents from Ashlyn)



Then waking up Birthday morning screaming "YES, this is AWESOME!" as waking up COVERED in balloons is the COOLEST thing EVER!


...with an easel and other gifts around the room...
THEN spending the entire BIRTHDAY (and Memorial Day) with cousins and family at Uncle Danny & Auntie Sarah's house for a pool PARTY!) 
Cousin William & Uncle Danny look how cute, cant get any better than all this!
Cousins: Ryan H., Carter T., & brother Asher

Ryan & Ella loving the pool!

NANA with her 2 oldest Granddaughters



And the cutest Birthday Girl there ever was!  Happy 5th Birthday my sweet ELLA!

May 23, 2011

My Easter was quite NICE!

Love this picture. Asher's finger is hilarious!

Yes Asher is in Halloween PJ's.
 

May 11, 2011

CALLING ALL MOMS: 71 Toes Blog

I just totally love, love this mom's blog and admire her, thus why she was named "Young Mother of the Year,"

Here's her blog link if you want to follow like me, thus my I Love Lucy Project (button) as well: 

http://71toes.blogspot.com/

She inspires me (thanks Sarah) to be a better Mama despite my drama!  Here is her speech from the convention, which I loved and left me inspired me, so enjoy:

I've had a few people ask me to post the 3-minute speech I had to give at the American Mothers National Convention last week. So here you go:

One beautiful spring morning when I was a teenager, I had the rare opportunity to take a ride in a hot air balloon.

I loved it.

I loved watching the world shrink below me and the sheer beauty that such a different vantage point allowed. I could see everything from a whole new perspective.

At that time I had no idea that what was making our ride so beautiful was fire, and the heat it generated as it lifted us high into the sky.

Four years ago our fifth child, a daughter named Lucy, was born with six toes on one foot. The doctor quickly reassured us that it was much more common than we realized and that it could be removed without a fuss. Just like that teenager in that balloon years before, I had no idea at that time what fire that seemingly insignificant extra little toe would bring into our lives. A couple years later that toe would lead to a diagnosis of a rare genetic syndrome that would cause a myriad of health issues, most heart-breaking for us: imminent blindness.

Although our journey has certainly been a refiners fire, I would never trade it. It has made my children glow with compassion, it’s made me be a more deliberate mother, and my dear husband, well, he’s still trying to figure out whether he likes this fire much at all.

But that’s ok. Some fires last a long, long time.

Everyone here has some unexpected fire in their lives whether they are on the surface or deep down inside. Our fires are sometimes big and sometimes small…things ranging from your seven-year-old thinking it’s funny to call 911 (like what happened at our house last week), or they could be smoldering long-term fires like having to deal with drug or alcohol addictions, or losing a loved one. But I’d venture to say that as we look back on these fires, big or small, we would probably all agree that they, although at times horribly painful, have elevated us as they have given us a new perspective in life to make us stronger.

I love this quote from Rick Warren: “Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one now, you're just coming out of one, or you're getting ready to go into another one. The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort.”

Just like a ride in a hot air balloon, sometimes the wind takes us places we may not want to go. But we have to train ourselves to cherish the new vantage point that the fires in our life give us, and eventually we find that these fires are what elevates us to become the kinds of Mothers God wants us to be.

In closing I want to share one more quote: “Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved piece, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming ‑‑WOW ‑‑ WHAT A RIDE!”

May we all go forth and remember that fire has the power to elevate if only we will allow the hand of God to help us through the hottest, most smouldering parts.

May 10, 2011

Another Blood Curdling Cry in this here home...

So yes it was ME again (are you surprised?) probably not.

Well since there is so much DRAMA in our household, theses little things I guess I take for granted on a daily basis, and so many people loved my knife story (I even found out I had a few blog stalkers...YIPPEE!).  The fact that I was happy to share a little bit of our drama and get some laughs in return, that I thought I would sub-title our Blog (This Mama's Drama).

So you are probably still wondering why I let out another blood curdling scream. Yes I was being over dramatic (AGAIN!) but seriously!  My son Asher (33 month old son) just is potty training. He actually is doing GREAT (that makes me happy enough to just blog about that, but I know most people don't care). So onto the drama. I had him on the potty, he went and a little got on his little mini potty seat (yes its Princess, because we didn't replace it since Ella used it, and I am not going to).  Well I look away for a minute and in a split second I see him stick his finger in the pee & stick his finger in his mouth and LICKING it...ENTER blood curdling SCREAM! Ned is (VERY CALMLY may I add, as ALWAYS) asking what is happening in there. 

It's really funny the things little kids do without thinking, he never knew not to do that and I took it for granted that EVERYONE (children included) would know NOT to do that.

Another lesson for this Mama, with a bit o' DRAMA!

May 3, 2011

I AM such a inpatient NERD!!

So my good friends are probably already saying, "YES, no new news to us!" But just thought I would reconfirm it in case you forgot.  As usual I am SO inpatient and try to do everything super fast and as quickly and quickly as possible. Including making dinner, while unpacking, while letting the kids do crafts, while cleaning up. Well yesterday that didn't work so well for me.
Taking on my cell while waiting in Er (I was SO SO BORED!)
These are the CUTE knifes that did it!