Bad morning

Today was not I repeat NOT a great start to the day. I really felt good when I woke up. I had slept in, thanks to Ben and knew I had a lot to do.  I had to go get vaccinations for Bella Baby, and I had to buy a dress for the photo shoot on Saturday.  I took my time getting the kids ready and things were going well.  Until Connor ignored me and went upstbbairs to get water when I told him no. I yelled and sorta over-reacted which I felt bad about. g'g'gSo we said a prayer and prayed to have a happy better day.  Then I came out and Connor had spilled said water and cleaned it up with a paper I needed for the immunizations. Oh well..not the worst thin%TT5
5%g.  So that motivated me to tidy up the whole house instead of leaving things in a mess. I felt better...we had a good visit at the health dept and I got my shots and the kids did great.  Until the end. Connor left and in the time it took me to get my purse and Parker, I went out to find Connor and he had gotten on the elevator. I couldn't find him. I was so SO mad. I ran to the 4th floor from the 3rd and he wasn't there. So I called for the elevator again (the first time he wasn't in it when it opened).  This time he was there. I was livid from having to lug Parker up the outside ramp to find him and could not believe he had gotten away from me so fast. I yelled again. Second time today. Total loser mom. I felt so bad but was still just shaking from rage.  We went to buy the dress, and the place doesn't open until 11. It was 10:25. Perfect.  So then we went home and Parker went down for his nap. We just finished lunch in which I freaked out on Connor again because he wasn't listening to me when I tried nicely telling him to stop doing something.  It's so hard keeping my cool sometimes!!!

The day stayed pretty hectic. I was grateful to get a nap in, which was AMAZING...and I slept so hard. Both kids had a great afternoon nap.  Love sleeping. I should do it more often...haha. We had a delicious dinner of steak enchiladas and mexican rice and beans and my dad's guacamole. I need to be better at getting dinner done earlier since everyone comes home starving and they all have to wait or make it themselves other times.

I'm so tired. I need to get some work done and I just want to crash. I'm totally hormonal and overwhelmed so I think sleep is the best cure... Happy Monday to us!

I don't want to leave mommy!

Today was a great church day. I got the kids and myself ready rather early and had time to spare. I did my lesson Saturday night and felt totally prepared.  I laid Parker down for his nap and he slept a little too long, making us late for sacrament.  Ben had gone on time so he could lead the music but we came at around 11:30 and the kids did awesome since they only had half an hour or so to be bored.  They ate snacks the whole time!  Connor went to primary and he seriously LOVES it. My mom is in Jr. primary too and said he watches and pays really good attention.  He told me after class that he wanted to stay there and didn't want to leave church! I am SO glad that he loves it or honestly it would be REALLY hard for me to want to drag the kids to church every Sunday!  I loved our lesson today too. We taught on the Restoration and First Vision and I can't believe how strong my testimony is of these things.  We watched a video of the Restoration and even though it was acting I just got chills watching Joseph walk to the sacred grove, unaware that he was about to have a vision that would change the lives of thousands of people.  What a miracle.  I love that his name is mentioned in the Book of Mormon..how crazy would that be to translate something and see mention of yourself in a book that was engraved on thousands of years before you were born! I love this gospel, I love being a member of the church and love the values I will be able to teach my beautiful children.  We were pretty tired after church and had a decent nap, but Parker didn't sleep as long so I got him up and we visited in Tasha's room.  I looked around her room and saw some awesome Indian things so we went out and did a photo shoot real fast! I LOVE how they turned out and how easy it was for me to get the photos I wanted! I really DO know what I'm doing! It's great!

Here are a few of my favorite photos.

And the boys have LOVED watching movies on a little TV my mom bought the other day. They are so cute cuddled up watching a movie together in Connor's little recliner!

Here's to a new week!

Saturday is a special day..

It was nice to have Ben home on Saturday. The kids were sorta exhausting and we were SO tired that morning. We tried to put them down for early naps and it just didn't happen.  So we gave up, got ready for the day and went to Breakfast at Tifiny's to talk to Tifiny and Earl. They are starting to do dinners and wanted to see if Ben was interested in cooking for them on Saturday nights.  We miss those guys!  We don't think the Saturday night thing will work out very well with our photography business starting to get busier and the Opera needing more and more attention...but it was so awesome of them to ask us.  It's nice to feel like we're in control of our life and that would make us feel overwhelmed again I think.  We took Connor to McDonalds after that so he could play on the play place and get some energy out.  He made me laugh inside when I told him it was time to leave and he yelled at me very loudly "BUT I'M HUNGRY!!!!" Yes son, I realize that you didn't eat the food I made you for lunch so you MUST be hungry...oh man.  It's weird to have a child that can yell and embarrass you like that. Finally after this craziness we got the kids both down for nice naps and we worked on our styled Opera shoot. We left to go look into costume ideas and found some awesome possibilities.  It was really fun to be able to have creative license to do what WE want to do!

We came home and decided it was a good night for mac n cheese with hot dogs made with tomato sauce instead of butter.  The kids ate cereal before we had the chance to cook anything and Connor wiped his bowl of life totally clean! They were starvin'!

It was nice to save the money we would have spent if we had gone to Chuck-a-rama with my family..we were able to transfer $25 to savings! In 3 days we saved almost $50 just practicing some restraint. Amazing!

It was a pretty good day...

Frriiidddaaayyy

Oh the funny moments

Today is brought to you in photos.  We had a great day at home. I had a lot of work things and confusions with meetings so I feel like all I did all day was think about work but we managed to have some fun silly times mixed in! And I made a delish dinner...from Mel's Kitchen Cafe.  Sweet and sour baked chicken with fried rice! It was to DIE for people! I'm drooling thinking about it! 

Had a great day as far as keeping with our goals and dreams! Can't post about it yet but some awesome things on the horizon! Yippeeeeee!!! 

Ok here's some of the highlights of today...

Oooo I love to open and shut this cupboard door!

Are you watching me??

Oh hi mommy! I'm having a lot of fun!

Peek-a-boo! I see you!

LOVE that little head!

 

I asked him to put this measuring cup away and he said "Did 

I use this to make cookies esserday?" So smart and I love that he knows where things go!

Helping aunt Tasha clean her room. I think she deserves his enthusiasm since she is such a good second mommy to him. I'm laughing right now thinking of all the moments she takes over and mothers him before I can even take a breath! Hahaha...

Dance break!

Playing his ukelele violin...

New goals

No pictures for yesterday..how lame is that?! I have my phone on me all the time and I'm a freakin photographer...but alas many days go by that I don't take a single photo of my kids. I guess that's actually more normal than not.  It was a pretty good day yesterday and I felt very accomplished.  I worked on things for Forevermore, watched or rather listened to a tutorial by Jasmine Starr a very popular wedding photographer who was doing a FREE seminar online all day.  She'll be back in February and March helping photogs like me to revamp their business. It was inspirational and really made me feel like I can conquer the world! I also managed to have fun with the kids and enjoyed some awesome play time.  They REALLY love me being on their level so I think spending a lot of time on the floor will be in order!  Parker gets giddy when I'm crawling around with him and I seriously can't get enough of that kids snuggles!

I made a yummy dinner which was a miracle considering at 4:00 I had no dinner plan whatsoever! I found recipes that reminded me of one we love, crispy cheesy chicken, and I found a recipe for baked yams.  Add some crescent rolls and green beans and it was a Martha Stewart masterpiece! I should have taken a picture...oh well. Next time!  But I felt really awesome because I had Parker in the kitchen with me eating his snacks, watching me cook and Jasmine Starr in the background telling me how to manage my business...haha. Thankfully Connor was taking a nap still!

I realized yesterday how much stress it adds to my life when I want to go "out and about" with the boys. Having to hear them screech and fighting them in the stores is something I refuse to be ok with! And honestly I had NO need to go shopping, I just went along with my mom to get out of the house.  But when and how this happened I don't know- I'd rather stay home and not go somewhere just to go somewhere!  I think it started when Ben got his job and I started being on my own again. I really REALLY love it. I have more motivation, I get more done, and I'm a better mommy!

I got a job at Bella Baby and I'll be taking pics of newborns 3-4 days per week and I'm not sure how that will balance out but it's a big blessing and will hopefully mean lots more money.

We have a new goal....we got into subsidized housing but decided now that we have some income for the first time in years, rather than throw it away on rent we're going to save to buy a house!!! Nothing big or major, just a first little home that will be comfy for our family of 4.  We have a goal to save 15% ASAP which means we are going to live more frugally than ever before. Funny how when you're making an extra couple hundred more than what it takes to survive, you spend it all. But when you have the potential to make thousands more...you want to SAVE it all! So we are lucky that my Forevermore money pays all our bills, and whatever we make beyond that on photography, Ben's job at the bank, and Bella Baby will be put into a house account.  I'm going to transfer money to savings whenever I resist the urge to buy something or go out to eat. I want it to add up fast. For curiosity sake I'm going to add up everything we spent on fast food and extra junk last year..see what we could have saved.  Should be sickening!

Well that was our day, I feel good and happy and will take some pics today of the boys and try to blog tonight instead of tomorrow!  Happy Day!

Day 3- a little late but better than nothing

Last night I was BURNED OUT because of our long day spent in Cedar.  I have no idea why I wanted to go- maybe my childhood fear of ever being left out of a fun event including my aunts and uncles...but I said I wanted to take both kids to Cedar with my mom and aunt Michelle to go to lunch for my aunt Jill's birthday.  I have a great friend Marilyn who was very kind to watch my kids for an hour or so while I went to the lunch making it much more enjoyable than if they'd gone.  But the drive up was loud with Parker's shrill shriek and Connor whining for things off and on. I was sitting behind them in Michelle's van and thankful I wasn't in front of them to hear their noises...but man it didn't take long for me to regret going altogether! My ears were popping non stop because I'm recovering from a stupid sinus infection/head cold.  We had fun at Marilyn's but Connor was into everything and rarely relaxed long enough for us to have a decent conversation. I was one of "those moms" that had to cut off Marilyn talking to say "CONNOR WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" I used to hate that when I was younger...grrr now I'm doing it! We played in the snow a little and that was Connor's dream come true. I bought him some snow pants last week online and he LOVED making snow angels and throwing snow balls...or clumps. He's so funny and I can see how he mimics what he's seen on his tv shows. Is this a bad thing? I don't know. Anyway then we went to grandma "A-raynes" as Connor calls her. I was frazzled and at my wits end after 2 minutes there. Both kids were crawling or running all over the place, going into rooms they shouldn't, disappearing in the blink of an eye, or just plain ignoring me. My mom got mad telling me I was being too stressed out but oh my GOSH. Do anyone's kids act this way or is it just lucky ole me? Thankfully my grandma told me as we were leaving that she thought my boys were adorable and she had loved watching them. I'm glad it hadn't given her a nervous conniption!

We drove home which was crazy annoying but we made it through and had breakfast for dinner. Amazing how much calmer I felt being in my own home where I knew my kids were safe and couldn't break things or fall down stairs.  We had fun playing for a bit then got the kids down for bed early since Connor had NO nap and Parker had only slept about an hour at Marilyn's house.

Bad moments- I yelled at both kids today out of sheer frustration. I feel really bad about this now...
Good moments- Having a quiet lunch and then playing in the snow with my boys and seeing their joy. And later playing on the floor in the kitchen with Parker and seeing his face light up when I was at his level.

Hard day- good moments!