Happy Mother's day to me!

 I LOVE being a mom.  I love love love my kids.  Sometimes... (usually a little bit every day) I wish I could lock myself away and have a half hour to myself. But this is motherhood.

I've been so inspired this year by this person.  She is such an incredible mother who has so much love and appreciation for this calling in her life.

 I am so grateful for my beautiful children.

 I am so grateful for my health.

 I am so grateful for the gift I have to be a stay at home mom!

 I'm so grateful for the knowledge that I am not alone in this and that I have Help when I don't know where to turn.

 I am just so grateful.

Now I am going to go lock myself in my bathroom and take a bath and read a book and get away from being a mom for a 1/2 hour.  

Happy Mother's Day!

Olivia turns 3

New banister

It's done.  Yay!  It took forever!  Trying to keep three little kids plus all of their friends to keep hands off a freshly painted banister was driving me insane!  Plus I have never used oil-based paint before and although I really like the end result, I'm not doing it again.  WHAT A PAIN!  But it turned out beautifully.

Hello gorgeous!

I stained the rail and newel posts along with the bottom ledge.  I wanted to still let some of the wood show through.

I painted each of the ballusters with the oil based paint so when those kiddos run along them with their light sabers and princess wands, it won't knick the surface and ruin my paint job.

Another look at the before....

Big difference!

Hello.  I'm still sanding.  But last week I made some changes in our bedroom.  I moved the furniture and I'm feeling like I am in a whole new room!  Love it!  Our Master is tiny tiny tiny.  I used to have the bed in front of the window and I thought it gave us a little extra room.  But... We sacrificed light.  Living in Utah with this mucky, dingy, gross air has made me crave lighter, brighter spaces.  

This is what our room looked like a few years back....

And Today...

Much better.  Burke and I even traded sides of the bed.  Yes people... I like to live dangerously!

"I'll be the mommy and you be the sweetheart"

My girls are obsessed with raiding my closet every morning.

 Then we do a quick photo shoot.

 WORK IT! OWN IT!

 Hello!  I love this one!

 They get their purses and walk around saying "I'll be the mommy and you be the sweetheart" (Sweetheart means any little girl that is no longer a baby.) (love their vocabulary)

Tessa's 1st day of Kindergarten!

"Olivia, come here.  You're in the picture"

"Tess, just look at me and smile normal, honey"

"No.  Smile NORMAL."

"There we go"

Cute girl.

Today was Mason's 1st day of 1st grade.  It was a big moment in both of our lives.  6 hours at school is a LONG time.  I was a little worried that he would lose it at some point.  I dropped him off this morning and he was all smiles.  All of the kids lined up in the back of the school.  When the bell rang,  he turned around and waved and walked into the school with the rest of the class.  All day, anytime the phone would ring, I would be afraid it was the school calling to tell me that something is wrong and Mason is crying.  The call never came.

At 3:00, he was out in front of the school smiling and waiting for me.  It was a good day!  The first things out of his mouth were "I can cross the whole way on the monkey bars!" and "There is a boy named Ben and a boy named Logan (wogan) in my class" and finally "1st grade is 50 thousand, 10 million minutes long!"

Good Times

I'm trying harder to start to record the things we are doing everyday.  I want so badly to remember the moments we are having daily with our sweet little kiddos. 

Last night we got to go camping with our ward campout.  It was a quick little overnight and we weren't allowed to bring our trailer because there wasn't enough room in our spot. But... it ended up being so much fun.  Olivia was hilarious.  When she gets tired, she gets really hyper.  We all got in the tent and were squished shoulder to shoulder in the dark.  Olivia didn't know what to think because she always goes to bed alone in her room.  She loved the fact that we were all in this tiny little tent and thought it was time to wrestle and attack us all. Especially her daddy.  I loved laying there in the dark with my sweet little family listen to Tess prattle along about anyting and everything that comes into her head.  I loved listening to Mason repeat over and over that he loves me "this much".  I loved my little crazy 2 year old with her little blonde curls jumping and growling on us in the tent.  I loved to see my cute husband smile and laugh at his crazy children.  It.... was... the.... best.

Jackson Hole with the Wrights

Fourth of July - Fireworks