A horror story that begins like a fairy tale...

Once upon a time yesterday afternoon, I decided it was time to do Anabelle's hair. It had after all been two days since a comb had seen those locks and I needed her to run an errand for me.

So I walked upstairs (all 17) of them, and called to her to come up. She did.

About a minute later Lila came up, and wandered to the book nook and began to peruse the paperback section.

And about a minute later...

what to my wondering eyes should appear but a miniature person climbing up the last stair.

Maisey climbed up all those stairs by herself. And when she got to the top she had an eye-hiding grin and fists clenched full of treasures she had collected along the way.

I just stood there, staring at her, in horrified disbelief.

Now she did climb 3 or 4 stairs about 2 weeks ago after she watched me put my shoes up so she wouldn't chew them. I took them off, and set them on the 4th stair as I always do. She watched me do this, looked at the shoes, looked at me, and climbed right up, without hesitation, like she'd been doing it all her life.

But then she fell down twice and I hadn't seen her show interest since. I guess she really wanted her hair done.

I already struggle to keep the whole house clean. Usually, I can get the upstairs in the morning, and the downstairs in the afternoon. Now I have to find a time to get THE stairs. It's no secret that I don't vacuum my stairs often. I do not like that chore. Any job that requires me getting an extension chord is about as likely to happen as me giving my kids cake for breakfast- won't say it doesn't happen, but it's sure not the norm.

Her other recent trick is that if you give her bits of food while she is sitting in her booster at the table, she will pick up the food, and deposit it inside a little hole that is part of her chair. What is with this kid?

I have a growing sense of worry concerning what a two year old Maisey will bring. It seems possible that her skills for havoc may seriously encroach on any crafting or personal time.


Braden bathed her last night and then styled her hair like so. Upon retrieving her from her crib this morning I noticed that she had pulled out both ponie tails. After nursing her on one side she sat up and pulled the hair bands out of her mouth.

Doesn't her face say it all?

I've said it before, I'll say it again...

...nothing beats being a Mom.

Braden's parents sent me these flowers for Mother's Day. All the world seems like a better place when there's fresh flowers on my table.

I spent the day thinking of the mother's in my life. My Mom who continues to amaze me with her gratitude, faith, and humility. And Braden's Mom with her generous and soft heart that makes all her family yearn to be around her.

I am absolutely honored to be a mother. It has made the innermost parts of me come alive; the feeling of doing what I was made to do is indescribable.

I am grateful for the powerful examples of motherhood that I can look to and lean on.

Without a doubt, the best part of me is my children.

I'm grateful to Braden for making me a mother, for providing for us so that I can dedicate myself wholly to it, and for supporting me without reservation in all that I do.

“Motherhood is near to divinity. It is the highest, holiest service to be assumed by mankind. It places her who honors its holy calling and service next to the angels.”

If you give a Maisey a mango...

She's going to make a face like this...


And when you take the spoon away to get her some more mango, she'll be mad at you and she's probably going to make a face like this

or this

or this


But in the end it will have been a very rewarding experience for everyone

Here's the thing about blogging

Recently I made it so the only person who could read my blog was me.

Don't take it personally.

I got lots of emails and messages wondering if it was you. It's not.

But here's the thing- blogging does weird things. Wonderful and weird things.

It's nice because you feel like you know people you've never met, like you do the characters in a well written book. You get a window into the lives of far away family and friends who you otherwise would remain unconnected to. You learn new insights and get fresh perspectives and ideas because it can be such a personal and intimate look into someones life as they detail their day to day journey. You relate to people in a similar stage of life as yourself and you can forge friendships of support through blogging comments alone.

And conversely, it can be hard to say what you really feel when you know it will be read and judged by people who may or may not be able or willing to understand your perspective, as a trusted friend would. You don't want to hurt any feelings or leave anyone out when documenting events.

Often times I will go to share something with someone and they give me the "I already read it on your blog" look.

I do this thing where I'm always wondering how everything affects other people, how will this particular person interpret this situation or post. Which I think is a beneficial filter to have going when what you write is a public forum.

But first and foremost, the blog has become my place to document my life. It is my journal and my scrapbook and my family history. So I have a need to be authentic, above anything else. I don't want to feel pressure to say things that I think will be well received, I want to say things as they really are. Sometimes I'm unmotivated, and uninspired, and I haven't done laundry that week and I ate chocolate cake for breakfast. And lunch. And then sometimes I study my scriptures everyday and keep a stellar scripture journal and make fresh salsa and scrub the baseboards and write my congressman, all before 9am. And I want to know what makes the difference. So I want to write about it. And for other people to be scrutinizing that learning process is a bit more than I'm comfortable with.

Am I the only one that finds the process crazy?...

-Spill your guts out there in cyberspace

-Wait for the comments to roll in over the next few days to see how you feel about how you felt

-Check sitemeter to see who's reading but not commenting.

That's actually not how I experience it, I'm not a sitemeter checker at all actually but I know that's how it goes for plenty of people. What a weird thing we're involved in here.

I am sort of a private person and this whole scene has always been a struggle for me.

Maybe I'm a bit old fashioned in the sense that communication is so much more rewarding when there is reciprocation. I too am insanely guilty of reading peoples thoughts and feelings without leaving them feedback of any kind. Almost without exception, if I am on the computer, I am breastfeeding so if I can't do it with one click, it's not gonna happen. But all of a sudden I found that I don't talk to people anymore because everybody feels like they know what's going on with me because they read my blog. Which is a little bit okay because we're all busy yelling at our kids. To come down for lunch. Not really yelling at our kids. (Yikes, who yells at their kids anymore? Now we just tell them they can't have their iphone with them at preschool that week). But I do miss the actual exchange of live relationships.

And that's why I closed down the bliggity blog. I told you it wasn't personal. It's all about my own weirdish worries. But after receiving numerous messages thinking it was, and late night phone calls from the very rudest and belligerent of readers, I decided I would re-open it.

But only under one condition. And that one condition has sub categories.

1) Promise to never be offended by anything I write.

2) If you do get offended, just promise not to write anything nasty about me on my locker or tell everyone that I peed the bed until I was 9 (authenticity people).

3) Try not to be a silent stalker. And I'll try not to do that either. Stalkers are for celebrities, and let's not kid ourselves, my life is just not that cool.

4) And lastly, try not to judge me in my extreme absurdity. Pretty much my entire goal for life is to continue down the path of becoming less and less of an idiot. So if you can help me do that somehow that would be great.

Fancy Nancy & her understated Mom

This weekend the library on base hosted a Fancy Nancy Tea Party. The Claysons watched the 2 unfanciest members of our family so I could take Anabelle (as Braden is still TDY in Oregon). She got a special invite in the mail addressed just to her. When it was finally Saturday morning I heard her say right when she woke up in a breathy hopeful whisper, "I wonder if this is Fancy Nancy day."

We rounded up all the glittery, blingish, feathery, sparkly accessories we have, glossed our lips, and bid adieu to the diaper donning duo.

I was not aware that I too was supposed to be in costume. I felt a bit plain in my t-shirt and khaki shorts. But hey, at least I wasn't the mom in the tubetop. Go me.

I loved spending that hour alone with my little fan of frill.

In case you don't get to watch me while I do this...

I would love it if somehow I could sit on a bench and watch me as I attempt to take JUST ONE picture of my kids. Well, you know, I take more than one, I take about a jillion, but all I really want is just one.

One picture where they all look cute.

Is it too much to ask?

Yes. Trust me, I've asked.

"Girls, smile!"

"Anabelley can you look over here please?"

"Lila K show me your teeth!"

"Maisey, Maisey, Maisey...where's Mommy?" (followed by stupid bird call noises)

"Lila get your finger out of your nose please"

Growing frustration....

Voice is getting short & desperate. Pleading for cooperation.

"Smile girlies!"

"Look right here, can you look at me? Lila, look at my camera"

"Anabelle put the sand down"

"Maisey, look right here baby"

"Lila, can you sit up?"

"Girls! Seriously?!"

"Anabelle put your hands down"

"Lila stop pulling her over"

"Lila don't touch Maisey. Just sit there"

"ANABELLE. LOOK. AT. ME."

"Girls, please."

"Please?!"

"Eh, forget about it.

And now proof of the fruitless and frustrating attempts at getting all three girls to look at the camera, not pick their nose (Lila), not choke another sister (Lila), and smile without looking like you're also pooping at the same time (all of them). Do they know how hard it is to find dresses in all their sizes? I bought these lilac beauties a year ago.

Bedlamites.







I even made them try on two separate occasions...










So I resort to individual shots...






...and then I eat their easter candy for giving me such grief.

Don't take no crap from no one

Especially not a big (bossy) sister.

Anabelle is a natural leader. She instructs, and often time, people follow. Sometimes, she preys on those with easy going, relaxed personalitites, like her little sister.

And after almost three years of being talked out of the beater with more batter, her potty treat, or the pink bowl at dinner time, Lila took a stand.

And it was awesome.

Today I heard her on three seperate occasions tell Anabelle what was up.

I gave the girls a snack at 4 at the table. Anabelle ate hers while getting off the chair to go play. Lila took a nibble then she sang a song. Then she took a bite, then she picked her toes. The she took a drink, then she counted the flowers on the table.

So at 6, when it was dinner time, Lila was still there, working on her snack. First thing Anabelle does when she gets up to the table is tell Lila to eat her food. You know, just to be bossy.

Lila said, "Don't boss me Anabelle. Eat your quesadilla".
I had to duck around the corner because I was laughing. And do you know what Anabelle did. She ate her dang quesadilla.

She also told her to "say sorry to me" and asked her to "speak kind to me".

Yeah, take that punk (said affectionately).

Really though, she had that comin for a good long while.

Nice to see Lila take a stand.

We have wondered if Lila was gonna get pushed around all her life because she is so good natured and sweet as pie.

Nice to know she can hand it to you if need be.

Because we had 20 minutes to kill after dinner

How much do I love that the beach is at the end of my street?

How happy does it make me to see my kids love the ocean like I love the ocean?

Like I could even answer those weird questions.

I don't always take my camera on these spur of the moment trips to find some shells before bed. But I did this time.

These pictures represent countless days of family fun exploring and loving the gulf.



Did you know that as long as you can't see people, they can't see you? Which means that no one knows that Anabelle is standing there purposefully peeing her pants.



"TAXI!?"