New Blog!

Ok, I got a new blog address! It is http://theschoolofherring.blogspot.com/ . I will no longer be using this one so if you would like to follow the other one feel free! :)

Priorities!

Before I had kids I spent my time doing things that I thought were some of the most important. I kept my house clean, I cooked dinner (almost) every night and I spent time doing things that I enjoyed like sewing, or hanging out with my friends and my sister. And then our baby girl came! We were so excited! We could not wait for our little angel to get here! I pictured myself and my nicely dressed clean baby going for a walk and playing together in our perfectly clean house. I just knew that everything was going to work out! Boy was I wrong!

Enter the world of dirty bottles, diapers and clothes. Every time I dress my beautiful baby girl she gets dirty again. Every time I get her down for a nap and I sit down to rest I look around and see a million things that need done but all I want to do is sleep! I loved my baby girl but it was a shock! I could not believe that this little tiny angel could cause so much mess! What can I say except whoa! There are so many things that nobody tells you before you become a parent! You hear about the late nights and the diaper changing. They talk about warming bottles at midnight and even the crying babies. But there are some things that nobody ever talks about! It was stressful to me that Ryan would come home from a long tiring day at work to a dirty house and me asking him to change a diaper and the laundry to the dryer at the same time so that I could make dinner. I wanted so badly to take care of him too!

Enter today. Today I cleaned my kitchen. Now to some of you this may not seem like a big deal but to me in my life right now it is. There is so much going on that there seems to be little time for cleaning. Some of you who are mothers can understand where I am coming from! From where I am sitting I can see assorted balls (all sizes and colors), a stuffed lion, bowling pins (7… where did the others go?), a shoe, 1 VHS tape, books, a bowl of grapes, 2 sippie cups (1 milk and 1 juice), a stack of blocks, a bike (with helmet), and several small farm animals mixed with Mr. Potato head pieces and this is just the beginning of the day and does not include the playroom.

Having a 2 year old child and a husband who is sick makes you realize what is REALLY important! I have learned that it doesn’t matter if she is always wearing a spotless shirt or if there are dishes in the sink. Showers become optional and clean clothes and dishes are a luxury. What really matters is the look on my baby’s face when I sit down and play her favorite game with her instead of doing dishes or let her push her baby to the park in the stroller when I should be folding laundry. I could clean up her toys before bed at night but I would rather read her a bedtime story and sing to her. The things that really matter are not material. It’s the time that we spend together. Watching her learn from me and soak up every word I say (except no… that one seems to be escaping us. Lol). These are the things that she will remember. 


She is not going to grow up and remember that on day she had to wear her PJ’s all day because she had no clean clothes, or that we sometimes ate off of paper plates because all of the real ones are dirty. No. She will remember that her mom used to play games with her and we went for walks to the park. Some of you may be able to do it all every day but I am not super mom and I never will be. So I will focus on the important things and let the little things slip from time to time! This does not mean that I am never going to clean my house or do those other nasty chores that need done because I know they are important too. However, I don’t know about you but I am going to make the most out of the time that my family has to be together! There will be all the time in the world for having a spotless house when my children are grown and gone. 

Mine?

We went Christmas shopping last night. We took Emma with us because we thought it would give us a better idea of what she wants for her christmas...

it did...

she wants one of everything...

I think if I hear "I want that one" or "mine please?" one more time I just might have a breakdown...

Next year Emma stays home...

Have a Good Holiday Season Everyone! and remember the REAL reason for the season!

Giving Thanks!

Oh man! There are just so many great holidays this time of year! I am already so excited to decorate for Christmas and start wrapping presents! However, lets not get ahead of ourselves! First, we need to talk about Thanksgiving!

This year Ryan and I decided to do Thanksgiving ourselves. We could not make it home to be with our families and we decided that we would rather not spend our Thanksgiving with the bishop and his family. They are wonderful people and we are grateful that they thought about us, but we just wanted to do it ourselves this year!

When we went to the store to get all of our Thanksgiving goodies they were having a "Turkey Bowl". They had pringles cans set up like pins and rolls of toilet paper to throw at them. If you knocked them all down you won a turkey. Well, Ryan and I both tried and failed. Then it was Emma's turn. They let her stand halfway down the lane so that she was closer to the pins and she threw her two rolls.... and she missed.... but I guess they just thought that she deserved to try again... and again... and again... lol She ended up throwing 6 rolls. But she not only threw them she rolled, threw and even kicked some but could not even get them to the pins. lol I guess they either felt bad for her or they just could not resist how excited she was! lol Anyways, I told her good job and we got up to go finish our shopping and the lady said "Here, she gets one for effort!" and handed us a 12lb turkey! lol It was pretty funny!

Anyways, Thanksgiving morning we had a light breakfast and then played some games together. We had bought some new ones so it was pretty fun. Emma had a blast (after Ryan ran and got the batteries that I forgot... whoops..)!

Helping Daddy put together the game.

Waiting for it to start!

Here come the butterflies!

She caught one!!!

After we played games we made paper snowflakes to decorate our house with for Christmas and then it was time for Emma's nap and some serious cooking.

Emma was not too thrilled with the idea of me cooking her prized turkey! She thought it would be a better idea just to keep it in the fridge and look at it! So we had to wait till after she was down for her nap to go ahead and prepare it! lol Neither Ryan or I had any idea what we were doing so we got on the internet and did some research. We ended up buttering it inside and out and between the skin and meat. After which we stuffed it with apples, oranges and an onion.

 Ready to be cooked!

 4 hours later!

 Carving our Turkey!

 Our feast! Needless to say there were plenty of leftovers!

(pic. won't rotate for some reason... sorry!)

 Emma ready for the blessing!

 Ryan is ready to eat!

Even Bella had a feast. Turkey heart, liver and gizzard! (Eeewww!!)

Our dinner turned out wonderfully and we really enjoyed the day together as a family!

Happy (Late) Halloween!

Ok Ok! I know that I am a slacker! I should have posted these at least before Thanksgiving but I didn't so here they are!

Every year as far back as I can remember on Halloween my Mom always made soup or chili or something like it for dinner before we went out Trick-Or-Treating! I always loved it so this year we had tomato soup with popcorn. Emma really liked it! :)

For Halloween this year we bought Emma a cute little fairy costume and a little wand. However, every time I tried to get her to try it on she would scream and run away. Well one of her friends had a little costume party and so we took it with us thinking that if she saw all the other kids dressing up in their costumes she would want to also. No such luck. However, her little friend Maddie also had a costume that she hated because she wanted to be a fairy like her sister. As soon as Emma saw Maddie's costume she fell in love! So, in a n effort to make the children happy we offered them a solution. This year Maddie went as a fairy and Emma got to be an...

Elephant!

We went to the Trunk-Or-Treat at the church and Emma loved it! Once she realized that all she had to do was say "Trick-or-treat" and people put candy in her bucket it became the greatest holiday EVER! She still says it every now and again hoping i'll cave and giver her a piece of candy!

Even though Ryan and I did not dress up Emma was not alone! Bella went as a Mummy! lol

After we got home from the Trunk-or-treat we watched a movie and handed out candy, which Emma did not think was quite as fun as getting it but she did really like seeing all the kids in costumes coming to the door! (She still gets excited every time someone knocks on the door!) It turned out to be a great Halloween and a lot of fun!

Lattin's Pumpkin Patch

Last year we took Emma to a pumpkin patch and it was a ton of fun so we decided that we would make it a tradition in our family! Today Emma and I went with some friends to a place called Lattin's Pumpkin Patch. Ryan could not make it so we will probably go again as a family but we did have a lot of fun!

 While we were waiting for the tour to start Emma and her friends rode the carousel and other things. 

                  

 

(Ali Explaining to Emma that she needs to hold on tight!) 

The first thing they do is take the kids in and show them where they grind and squeeze the apples and they all get fresh apple cider and an apple cider doughnut. 

After this they take the kids out to see the animals! They give each kid a little paper bag of oats to give to feed to the goats, chickens and sheep. 

                            

After all of the kids are done feeding the animals they take them all into a little maze! It was so cute to see all of these little kids running around! 

Next comes the tractor ride out to the pumpkin patch!!!

Emma was so excited when she saw all of the "Punkins"! At first she wanted them all and it took some explaining for her to understand that she could only choose one to take home. 

 But she did eventually find one and she sang  about it all the way home! It was so cute!

3 Years and Counting!

Our 3rd Wedding Anniversary

Our really good friend Jessy watched Emma all day so we could spend time together and not have to worry about her! We do not get to spend time alone very often anymore so it was a very welcome relief! Thanks Jessy!!!

The very first thing we did in the morning was to go and pick up our new toy! A Kawasaki Vulcan 900 Limited Classic! We love it! We spent most of the day just riding around! We had lunch at a cute little '50's diner and then went for a ride and later that evening we had dinner at Shari's! It was so good! We planned to go black light miniature golfing but they were closed by the time we got there! But we still had an amazing time just being together!

I am so lucky to have a man like Ryan as my husband! I love him more and more each day! We have our ups and downs just like anyone but luckily the ups outweigh the downs dramatically! We cannot wait to see what the future holds for us and are very excited to be able to grow old together!

I Love You Ryan!!

I love being married. It's so great to find that one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life. ~Rita Rudner

Success in marriage does not come merely through finding the right mate, but through being the right mate. ~Barnett R. Brickn

A long marriage is two people trying to dance a duet and two solos at the same time. ~Anne Taylor Fleming

A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Second Neurotic's Notebook, 1966

A wedding anniversary is the celebration of love, trust, partnership, tolerance and tenacity. The order varies for any given year. ~Paul Sweeney