Reeghan is 8

I have an 8 year old girl today and she isn't little anymore. I just can't believe how far we have come since this. Don't I look hot in that post. Wow we look so young and not only that but we had no idea what parenting would be like and here we are 8 years later and still don't know.

Reeghan has been such a joy to have around and I feel blessed to have her as my first born because she wants to be sure that we approve of all she does and wants to please us. She also has a great mind and thinks very logically which I struggle with most of the time but its one of the lessons I need to learn about her.

In preparation for this age we have taught her many gospel principles to prepare her for her baptism which will be happening July 2nd. She is anxious and I know she is ready and is fully aware of what kind of decision she is making. I am so grateful that she is in our family.



I was able to take some muffins to her classroom yesterday and her teacher, Ms. Beardsley, has this cute idea to celebrate birthdays in her classroom. She has the parents write a letter to their child and then they share it with their classmates as they eat their goodies.

It was such a treat to be there and witness the letter that we had written to her. She just lit up and her smile was priceless. At that moment as her mother I just looked at her and was overcome with emotion. It doesn't help that I am pregnant but she came up to me afterward and gave me the biggest hug! That just topped it off for me. I have had lots of moments with her lately that haven't been as pleasant and I get frustrated but I know that I need to have more patience with her and the way her mind works.

39 Weeks Today

If Stratton doesn't want to come to us on his own then his birthday will have to be May 31st! I can't wait to meet this little guy and welcome into this crazy fun loving family. Wish me luck!

Why is it so hard for me to PLAY

I'm a big list maker and a very task oriented mother. My poor children! I just don't make time to sit down at their level and just PLAY. Recently I have been poring over information of why I am the way that I am and what I can do to change it.

I've learned what a powerful, simple tool play is to a happy home. My kids are happier when I play with them. They behave better, they listen better, even I'm happier after one of our laughing fits. And because they want to repeat these games so many times, it's a quick, easy way for us to get the most out of our interactions.

Despite knowing all this, when I get caught up in the day and the business of life it's easy to put play on the backburner. I keep having to relearn how important playing with my toddler and children is.

According to the American Bureau of Labor's recent findings of how much moms play with their kids under 6 I'm not alone. Full Time working moms play 11 min. a day, Part Time working moms play 21 minutes, and moms who stay home with an extra 36 hours a week over their FT colleagues play only 50 min. a day. In comparison, each day Americans watch 2.62 hours of the boob Tube.

Well, I hope we can all spread some love and brighten our kids' day with a little more play.

Creating a Positive Atmopshere in the Home

1. 10 Minutes A Day For Each Child. Focus a minimum of 10 minutes a day on each child when they are enjoying you. This helps build a strong connection with Mommy. You want his greatest pleasure to be spending time with Mommy.

2. ENJOY Your Children. YOU spend a minimum of 10 minutes a day enjoying your children. We all know how fast time flies by. ENJOY THEM!! Make sure to savor their childhoods and not get bogged down by all the diaper changes, carpools and meals. Take time out of each day to watch them play or try new things. Step back and take it in, and try to seal it in your memory. Take in the joy they are giving you and realize what a blessing it is.

3. Just Because I LOVE YOU. Once a week, do something for your children ‘just because you love them.’ This shows them that you love them for who they are, not what they do. Don’t have this be a reward or something they need to earn, rather have it be purely because you love them, and tell them that! For instance, ‘We are going to ice cream today JUST BECAUSE I LOVE YOU and I want to spend some special time with you!’

4. Physical Touch. Make sure to have physical touch with your kids at least three times a day. Hug them throughout the day, and pat them on the back. Give them high fives and smile at them. Physical touch is another way to give them attention for good behavior!

5. 4:1 Ratio of POSITIVE FEEDBACK vs Negative Consequences. Be conscious of how often you are giving your children positive feedback vs. negative consequences. You should be giving them four positive feedbacks for every negative consequence you say to them. This can be anything that provides goodwill, such as praising, smiling, lovingly touching, and talking with them. Magnify the positive while giving them your full attention and energy. Create opportunities for your children to succeed, then take it a step further and explain to them how they succeeded once they do.

Baby Bump Week 34

That's our temporary room at my in-laws and that red thing in the background is a Turbosonic vibrating machine.


I finally got my toes done! It feels so good.

Interruptions

I speak of interruptions today because our life is now on hold for time away from our things and our household. Most would enjoy this time like I am but others may not. This is my view of how our life has been like this last week.

What an interruption means to Sarah:
a break (too much sitting), a time to refocus, thinking outside the box, rethink future goals, work on tax documents, blog a little, and read a book in a day (which I never do) I read this book here.

What an interruption means to Reeghan and Paetan:
a time away from chores, freedom at Grandma's house, late night's because of Spring Break, day camp, and just plain old fun.

What an interruption means to Easton:
mommy hater, more curious, off schedule, grumpy, out of sync, terror, sadness, telling me "Mommy I wanna go home", and just plain out of whack

I can't speak for Trent but I guess it helps when we don't have to pay rent for a couple of weeks.

Trent's ear

Doesn't that look interesting? It's a wax candle funnel thing that you stick into your ear and then light the end. The purpose you ask? The heat is supposed to draw out the ear wax... but it didn't really work. He had surgery on his right ear, a couple months after we were married, because he had cholesteatoma.

So he already had hearing loss in that ear since they had to also replace the 3 ear bones with prosthetic bones. Then, about a month ago, he started to lose hearing in his left ear. Its been a rough month for him and for me because I get stick of repeating myself because he can't hear me. I didn't have the patience for it I guess.

We were talking with his mom about it and she has had ear problems herself so she recommended that he go down and see her ear doctor. He got right in the same day and the doctor realized that the hearing loss was from ear wax blockage. He cleaned all the wax out of both of his ears and found years and years of build up in there. Now he can hear.

His right ear, that he had surgery on 9 years ago, was checked out as well because Trent hasn't been back to get it checked out since his follow up visit after his surgery. They did a CT scan and Trent will go back in May to get the results and see if more damage has been done and if the cholesteatoma has caused more damage.

More Move and Lake Perris

At the end of our moving experience we were invited by our friends to go camping/boating at Lake Perris. Which they didn't even know we were even moving when they called to ask us to go. They called Thursday night while the 1st wave of moving was happening.

Trent was on the phone with them and told them he'd call them back after he talked with me about it. He thought I'd say no. But at this point I was exhausted and I also wanted to be spontaneous because of my busy week. I've neglected my children all week and felt awful. This was the perfect opportunity to unite our family once again after all the caos.

The second wave of moving happened Friday morning along with my "angels" otherwise know as my sisters from church who showed up and helped deep me clean the whole house in 4 hours! They were incredible and felt like they did so little but in my mind just this simple act of kindness went along way for me and meant so much to me.

I was reminded of the hymn "As Sisters in Zion" as I watched them throughout my home clean. The part when it says, "the errand of angels is given to women", we as women have this within us to help one another as angels to fly in a moments notice, which happened the night before, to come help someone in need.

I have to thank my great friend, Shauna, for allowing me to say ok for help because she sent out the email and these women showed up! I have not only had cleaning help this week but also babysitting help from these great women in my life. I feel so blessed and my burden was made light.

Lake Perris

That evening we packed up once again for an overnight camp trip to Lake Perris with the Haws. We got to camp around 7 and setup and just let the kids run wild and they just enjoyed themselves. Then we lit up the campfire and did smores and then wound down and went into the tent.

It was a rough night of tossing and turning for me because we didn't bring a pad for me to lay on. We don't camp much at all so we need to create a punch list for our next one. It didn't help that I was pregnant either but I woke up every hour turning for one side to the next but I actually slept ok and didn't even have to get up to go to the bathroom.




The next day we got into the lake around 7:30am and just enjoyed our whole morning watching the boys wakeboard and Trent got up on the 4th time and did an amazing job. He made it look so easy. It was fun to watch him enjoy himself. Buddy just may have a new wakeboard partner because Trent wants to keep it up he had so much fun.




The children got onto the tubes and would have stayed on it all day long if they could. Paetan actually tried wakeboarding but only one run and got up for a bit and then crashed and it startled her so she didn't want to pursue it anymore. Maybe another boat trip. I was so proud of her she was so brave and she is my weakest swimmer in the water I thought for sure she would never try. Reeghan didn't even try and she is my strong swimmer.



Sara and I are both pregnant and are 4 days apart so we just enjoyed riding on the boat and enjoying the sun. We got a little too much sun though at the end of the day. We were so sun drained but it was so much fun and a great relaxing trip. Easton was quite the trooper and didn't have any issues with him being stuck on a boat for 8 hours. Such a good boy!

Trent Wave Surfing

Paetan Wakeboarding

The Joy of Moving

Its been a very long month and I feel that I've been consumed with dejunking, trashing, making numerous trips to the DI (thrift donation), and taping up boxes.

My poor children have not had alot of attention lately especially Easton gets more and more confused each time I tape up another item of his. Yesterday Trent took down the TV and that broke the string for him. He kept pointing at the wall and said, "No show?" I just sat and watched him walk around the room trying to find the TV. In a 2.5yr old mind I'm sure this situation is just so hard to understand and you can't explain it to them. I hope he adjusts well that's all I'm asking for.

I pretty much packed up the whole house myself because I was just so antsy to get it done and Trent has been so busy with work that all I asked him to do was his closet and the garage. But it ended up me going through his closet and then I had to pack up all this tool stuff which I just threw into a box and did no organization. Hopefully its ok.

I am now sitting down at my in-laws and have settled her short-term with a few things like clothing and books. I feel so free its incredible. I've loved watching my townhome shrink in size as I packed. Do I really need all those things to clutter up my life and my family? I guess you do to create memories but for right now I just feel like I don't have alot of responsibility to take care of my things and its a nice feeling.

Trent and I were invited to a spontaneous camping trip with friends and I said, "Yes" and you might wonder why. But if you knew my craziness this last month I NEED it to just get away and just enjoy nature and I am excited and I'm sure my children will be too because it will be family time and will be able to give them my full attention.

So the joy of moving is only for a small moment and I can't wait to see where our new home will be.