summertime and the livin' is BUSY!

We've had a busy summer to say the least.  I have been so overwhelmed that I didn't really get my camera out. I'll sum up and do my best using the pictures other people took. We've had (intake of breath) T-ball, play group, 3 trips to the drive in, my mom visits, church history sights in Kansas City, swim lessons, mother's week, visits from Iowa friends, ER visits, dr. appointments, Father's Week, Trip to Iowa, temple in Kansas City, Nashville Trip, 4th of July camping with family friends...(end of single breath)...and now we leave for Utah in 2 days.

The boys having fun on the slip'n'slide that my mom bought for them.

 It looks like Joelle is up to no good, but I'll give you two guesses who got out the peanut butter and spoon.

 

We have about 5 pictures total of when our good friends the Doughertys visited. The men took the boys to our ward Father and Sons campout while Angela and I took the little ones shopping with us. These boys have been best buds since they were 6 months old. We all had a great time.  

 

This is Joelle after she burned her hand. Once she got her hand wrapped up she acted like there was nothing wrong. She didn't really let it slow her down.

 But it really was bad. Second degree burns on all her fingers and her hand.

 Joe took this picture after the dr visit where they pulled off all of her blisters. I couldn't be there to watch it. I couldn't be the one to changer her bandages after that for about 2 days. It makes me physically ill to think of my kids in so much pain.

 Ethan LOVES to be coloring, drawing, writing, and reading. Every day he finds time to get some paper and crayons and create something. Lots of times it's 12 sticky notes with hearts and notes saying "I love Mom" written on them.

 Summer time means a lot of skipped naps. I don't mind:)

NASHVILLE!!!

Joe has a certain number of continuing education course hours he must fill, so we called up our old friends Derek and Rachel Kerr and asked if they'd come with us to a conference in Nashville. 

 During the day the guys would be in class until about 4 so Rachel and I would pack up our (combined) 5 kids and explore. Needless to say the kids were crazy, but we still managed to have a good time.

 Each evening we'd walk from our hotel to the music district for dinner. I got to meet Elvis.

 These few city blocks were jam packed with genuine Nashville energy buzzing all around us. While we never took our kids into the bars to hear the live music, we were still able to enjoy the ambiance from the sidewalk.

 The boys embraced their inner cowboy.

 We got to go inside this candy shop several times. I think Derek had been there one time too many. 

Everywhere we went people thought we had 2 sets of twins with us, because Joelle and Brennan are so close in size and they shared the double stroller.

 We had a great time in Nashville. Thanks so much to Rachel for all the pictures since we forgot our camera!

This is getting to be a long post so I'll do part 2 later. Tune in for our 4th of July fun with the Rasmussen family!!!

 

 

My Old Wives Tale

I've decided that Mother's Day should last longer than one day. It's a spiteful decision, so I guess you could say that I feel that mothers get the short end of the stick sometimes. Lets talk about this for a little bit.  It started when I watched this video about Mitt Romney. You may have seen it on my facebook page. Basically, in the speech he encourages a group of (predominantly Mormon) graduates to make their lives meaningful. He gives a list of ways to do so; marriage, children, service, and hard work were all on this list. He was then criticized quite harshly for being a religious fanatic and all sorts of other things. It got me to thinking about how moms, and particularly stay at home moms, are perceived in the world outside of my little bubble. What would these very harsh critics have to say about me and the choice all SAHMs make?
Here is the list I came up with:
-Moms have the most important job in the world.
-but, mostly, doing your best in the workforce is the most important job in the world.
-SAH moms aren't really contributing.
-women are powerful, strong, and just as smart and deserving as men. Just look at every woman who isn't a SAHM.
-SAH moms are selling themselves short, and aren't achieving their highest potential. This choice diminishes women and is not to be encouraged.

    I realize that if you are reading this, you're probably not thinking any of these things. Who would honestly have this opinion?! No one, right?  But, sometimes I feel like people perceive motherhood the same way they do eating lots of fruits and vegetables without sugar or cheese on them. 
    "Yeah, of course it's really good and makes our bodies more healthy, yadda yadda yadda."
    "Being a mom is so great, blah blah blah."
 Am I the only one who feels like this? It's like people say one thing and feel another.  If people truly thought that a woman actually could achieve her highest potential by being a SAHM, then why is it so absolutely and threateningly discouraged? Why is it completely unacceptable for a public figure to speak to a group of people and talk about how motherhood is a wonderful and important lifestyle choice? Encouraging girls to aspire to being SAHM has become so abhorrent, you'd think someone is trying to stunt the growth of humanity!
     I'm not trying to say, "Hey everybody, what I'm doing is way more important than what you're doing!" What I'm really trying to say is, "Hey, if you truly believe that motherhood is worth celebrating, LETS CELEBRATE IT!" For crying out loud, the heck!
 I don't blame you if you don't get that joke-it's a small shout-out to my mom.
    That's why I've decided that Mother's Day deserves a whole week. It's teacher appreciation week, and do you know why they get a whole week? Because they deserve it! So do mothers; we are, after all, teachers too.


I'd also like to add that, by buoying up moms and especially SAHM, I also recognize that it's not possible or chosen by everyone. I'm not blowing out your candle, so lets just let all our lights shine bright!

Easter

You'll have to forgive me for the blurry pictures. I'm trying my hand at the manual mode on my camera. Not because I'm a talented photographer, but because I'm not, and I don't understand how to fix my camera when it's on the fritz and won't shoot in automatic mode. Anyway, although I really tried to make the kids understand that Easter is about Christ, all they really wanted to do was play and eat candy. I settled for second best, which was a lovely evening filled with love and quality family time. The lighting was beautiful so I did my best to capture it. 

homemade...and not

 The Saturday before Easter, I got an itch to sew. I was browsing through Shabby Apple after having seen her LDS video. I was so inspired by her determination to make her own dresses, that I decided to do the same! I found a night dress/muumuu at a thrift store in December, and I just fell in love with the fabric. On Saturday I decided to turn this mass of fabric into EXACTLY what I wanted it to be-a light, summery, high waisted skirt, with a vintage flair.

 Notice the detail with the pleats? Eh? Eh? I also added a blue lace trim to the waistband...

 ...and the bottom hem.

Not bad, right? Okay, please ignore the 'I'm trying really hard to look effortless' pose.

 I also made the boys some matching bow ties. Look at that face! He lost another tooth Saturday night, but that's another story.

-

I did not make Joelle's outfit, but I DID make Joelle. Does that count?

Spring+Trampoline

 Once the weather warmed up a bit, we were all pretty excited to get outside and play!

This trapoline experience is brought to you by:

Joe. He's the best. Thanks babe!

Winter

 Winter took forever to leave us here in Missouri. We mostly stayed inside and played.

 The boys experimented with their blocks. They built a temple-run for their lego man. Not bad right?

 I experimented with Joelle's hair. This is her on a curly hair day. I absolutely LOVE playing with her hair!

 I also experimented with my own hair quite a bit.

 We did some indoor camping, which the boys really loved. As you can see in the following pictures, they had a lot of fun playing with the flashlight.

 

Looking back through the pictures, it looks like we had a lot more fun than I remember. This winter was a hard one for me.  But now spring has sprung and I can feel my energy and zest for life returning.  I'm looking forward to a beautiful spring!