we can fly, we can fly

It is slowly slowly getting warmer and we have been enjoying the trampoline at my parents house. Now if only we would get real spring. I am so ready for warmer weather. I think it will be somewhat nice today but until we get real spring we can at least pretend.

Sorry about the less then great photos, I am still figuring out our camera. Someday I hope to take lots of good photos but I have a long long ways to go. They are fun anyway right?

I love this one!

While we are waiting for real spring and my ability to take pictures to improve, we can at least practice our flying.

Ben: The up and down, flap your wings style

 Heber: The around and around style

Eeva: Still needs some work getting off the ground.


Hope you have a happy spring day!

Eeva's Dress

I finished Eeva's birthday dress in time for her birthday but I never took any pictures and it didn't fit very well. It still doesn't fit that great (too wide and a little short) but I finally got some pictures taken. I think it will look cute as a shirt with leggings in a few more months.

dress front

and the back. I never finished the booties to go with the dress... maybe I should get to work on them.

I had to take quite a lot of pictures to get a few where she was looking at the camera. She is holding a banana and graham cracker. "Hi mom"

In trying to get her to look at the camera I would say, "Eeva, where's the camera?"

It doesn't get much cuter than this!!

And oh these eyes!! I get so many many comments about how big Eeva's eyes are but I wouldn't have her any other way.

I listen to my own self

I have no idea what to blog about but I want to get at it again.

I have been incredibly moody/cranky/negative the last several weeks and I'm not really sure why. I have just really been struggling to feel happy or joy and anything in my life. My birthday was last weekend and it was nice. Heber sang Happy Birthday to me several time (he love to sing that song and will sing it whenever the mood strikes). I also got a new camera. We ended up getting this one:

I haven't taken much time to figure it out but I will post pictures as soon as I get a chance to take some.

Kids are growing and learning like they do. Heber's new thing (as of the last month or so) it to take everything possible out from where it should go. Then, in all his three-year-old attitude, he completely refuses to put anything back away. I have not idea what to do about it but it is making, Ben, my mom, and me all crazy. Yesterday  he took every book and toy out of the shelf in his room and put it all into a big pile in the middle of the floor- this happened three or four times! It is really getting ridiculous and it is such a huge fight to get him to even help put things back away.

Anyway, so I was talking to Heber about this and about how it is helpful if he listens to Mom and Dad so that we can all feel happy in our home. I told him it would be good if he could be better about listening to me. He looked at me and said "I just listen to my own self." I didn't really have much to say about that but it got me thinking about the value of listening to your own self. This is something that I really struggle with. I have such a hard time taking time to do what I need for myself. I feel like I am at work away from the kids all day and they need me whenever I am home. It is hard for me to put time to take care of myself. Yet I know that when "I listen to my own self" I am happier and then have the means to take better care of everyone else.
So... here's to listening to my own self so that I can get out of this rut of crankiness and negativity.

Now any ideas on how to get Heber to stop taking absolutely everything out of everywhere or at least get him to put it back away? I some day I just want to get rid of everything and be done with it. I think this weekend I will at least work on getting rid of some of the stuff and I think that will help. 

Happy Halloween

Ok, these are a bit late. I was planning on posting them earlier but never did... And since I have a goal of posting once a week and I haven't thought of much else to write about.... so this is what you get.

We dressed up for a family party the weekend before Halloween and then never ended up do anything on Halloween. We had a busy day and decided for a quiet evening at home. The costumes were simple and I was able to sew them in just a few hours.

my little lady bug

My puppy dog. Heber picked out what he wanted to be and was so excited about his doggy costume. 

His favorite part was the tail. He kept says "I have a tail, and Angle (my parent's dog) has a tail too"

This week I have been baking lots of yummy food and trying to take a slower pace. My house -especially the kitchen- is a huge mess but who cares really. I am doing what I want to do and not worrying about the rest. This weekend I hope to get Eeva's knitted dress done and start a sewing project for her birthday. I can't believe this little angle is almost 1. She is very close to walking and is starting to say a few words. How did she get so big so fast?

What are your plans for the weekend? Does anyone know how to get it so my pictures don't have a border? I have tried editing the HTML to say border=none but it is still there.

Scripture study and prayer

Our Bishop offers a different Bishops challenge for every quarter of the year. Once it was 100% home and visiting teaching. This quarter his challenge was to read the entire Book of Mormon before the end of the year. My first thought was to not even try. I don't read regularly so if I just don't accept the challenge I won't have to feel guilty when I don't accomplish the goal. Then it occurred to me how ridiculous this thinking was. If I don't even try, I have already failed. So I decided to accept the challenge and so far I have been doing really well at reading everyday and staying on top of it. My trick is that I can't do any knitting (or other reading) until I have read my scriptures. It is working well for me.

Yesterday I read this scripture:

"For can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee" (1 Nephi 21:15, also Isaiah 49:15)

It brought a smile to my face and hit me pretty strong. There is no way I could forget my sucking child. When you are nursing there is such a strong physical reminder that shouts "Your baby needs to eat. Now!" I get mighty uncomfortable after a few hours away from the kids. The scripture says I might forget, but the Lord will not forget us. He knows us and loves us as a mother knows and loves her child. He knows our needs and does not forget.

Silly kids! Eeva gives me this looks in a lot of pictures. I think it is hilarious.

On a similar spiritual note, Heber has been saying lots of prayer recently. It is pretty cute (accept when he is crying and screaming because someone else said the prayer). For a little while he would forget to address Heavenly Father and would just go straight into saying thank yous. I would have to stop him and remind him that we are talking to God when we pray so we start with his name. This is what he usually says:

How you start mom? You say Dear Heavenly Father. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for our blessings. Thank you for mommy and daddy, thank you for Eeva and daddy, thank you for me and mommy (He will add in anyone else in the room multiple times). Thank you for our food, thank you for our eggs, thank you for our burritos (or whatever else we are eating). Bless daddy at work. Thank you for Jesus Christ. Amen

 It really is a very sweet prayer. I love the simple faith of children. I love the simple lessons my children teach to me. Mothering gives me constant reminders to be patient, be kind, breath, and love one another.

A few other thing that Heber does to make me smile:

• Takes all the pillows and blankets from the bed, arranging them in a circle. He call this is pot and asks me if I want to come in his pot with him.
• He will make up his own words (actually just a sound of some sort). When I ask him what that is he explains it to me using more unknown words and sounds.
• He calls most things that open and close a gate. He likes to make gates out of my arms, blankets, clothes on the floor, and everything else he can think of. 
• When I say "Heber, where are you?" His response is "Here my am"
• He asks me to play with him but not just for a little bit. "Play with me for a real really long time"
• Anytime he is playing make-believe. One of hims favorites is pretending the rug is a lake. He jumps in and says "I splashed you mom. I got your shirt all wet. Now you have to go get a dry shirt on." We also pretend I catch him with my fishing pole and eat him up.
• He likes to give us lectures about things that we should or shouldn't do. He gave me the best lecture the other day about Grandpa's (who he calls Granshin). "Those are Granshin's bees mom and you DON'T TOUCH THEM. Just leave them alone. You just look at them!"
• He will also lecture Eeva saying in a stern voice "Eeva, I said no! Look at my eyes Eeva. Listen to me!"
• He mixes up the words fun and funny. "Let's go the the park. It's so funny"

 I love this boy of mine. He brings me so much joy even through all of the yelling and tantrums (he apparently learned well from me) and mess making. He can be such a stinker sometimes and other times he is so sweet. I am so glad to be his mother.

stuff

I haven't posted here for quite a while but I didn't realize it had been almost a month. I think that the longer I go with out posting, the less ideas I have for posting. I think I would like to do a post at least once a week. As far as blog reading goes, I like shorter posts more often but I seem to struggle with short posts. We will see how it goes.

I have been knitting this dress for little Eeva.

 

Prior to this, the only things I have knit are scares, dishrags, and leggings. So considering all of that, it has gone quite well. I am about half way through. It is far from mistakes but I think I would like to am another one at some point now that I know what I am doing.   I am making it in green with brown booties. I will post pictures when it is finished. It has been so much fun to knit.

We have had the rounds of a stomach bug that I sure was pick up at my cousins wedding 2 weeks ago. Several members of the extended family have all been sick. Heber and I were sick last weekend and Ben was sick early in the week. Eeva came down with it yesterday and it hasn't been fun. Amazingly this is the first time that she has ever been sick. It is such a contrast to Heber who gets sick a lot. I attribute this to vastly different birth experiences but who really knows. Heber got lots of antibiotics through my breast milk (I got an infection from my C-section and was on some pretty mega doses) and I think that really taxed his immune system. 

I came across this website playscapes and my mind has been spinning with idea for creating an outdoor playscape for the kids. I have also found many places I want to visit. They all so like so much fun but here are few of my favorites (click picture to go to website):

 

 

 

 

Anyway, So so many cool places to play. You should go check it out.  

That is all for now. Have a nice weekend. Leave me a comment : )

This girl

These days I can't seem to get enough of this girl!

She has such a wonderful spirit about her. 

She can be strong willed and quite opinionated. She has recently learned to crawl and scoot about and climb. If she sees something she wants, she is so very determined to figure out a way to get to it, even in her semi-mobile state. 

I hope I can teacher her (and all of my children) to think for herself and to stand up for what she knows is right. I hope that she will always no she needs no ones approval to be of self worth.

Eeva, I am so glad you have blessed our home with your presence. I am so happy you can be here on this journey with us. I am trying to be a good mom and I love you with all of my heart!

Breastfeeding is good for todlers too

And it is such a joy. At least most of the time. Sometimes I feel so touched out I want to scream at the next person who tries to touch me. I feel grumpy and irritated at being needed as a food source all day long. But most of the time I very much enjoy the chance to sit and snuggle my babies. It is so rare for Heber to sit still. I love when he climbs into my lab and we get the chance to sit a be together without other distractions. I love that he says silly funny things about nursing. He calls my milk "nee nees". I love that it is such an easy accessibly fix-all for any bumps, bruises, or hurt feelings. A few months ago he would always say "I want nee nees to feel better" (for him to feel better). Sometimes Heber wakes up during the night and will say funny things. Last night he woke up and said "I don't want any nee nees, I just want a drink of water. No I don't want water, I want nee nees so I can sleep." The other day I asked him what nee nees taste like and he said "It tastes yummy like milk" Like cow milk? "No, tastes like nee nee milk."

Thinking that nursing should stop at a certain age is ridiculous. Just because a baby reaches 1 or 2 or 3 doesn't mean that the benefits they previously received are suddenly gone. They are all still there. Nutrition, immune system boosts, skin to skin benefits, ect. They don't disappear when the child reaches a certain age. While I cannot fathom nursing a 4 or 5 year old (dumb cultural expectations), a few years ago I would have never ever imagined I would be nursing a 2 1/2 year old, Yet children grow older one day at a time. It's not like all of the sudden I am nursing a 2 1/2 year old. He just grows older day by day, month by month. I'm not sure where this journey will take me but I am trying to follow and do what feels right to me. I have long ago given up on doing what is culturally acceptable. Really it is only in the United States that nursing an older toddler is so strange and even gross. I think a huge contributing factor to this is that in our culture/media breasts = sex. Ugh!!

Today I read this article at Peaceful Parenting that talks about natural weaning and how weaning happens. It was a good reminder. For now I am happy to let weaning happen when and how it does, or at least continue on as long as we are both happy nursing.

I came across this video today and I thought it was so funny. I think this is the exact same reaction that I would get from Heber if I tried to put a blanket over him while nursing. It made me laugh out loud.You should go an watch it!

How to can (or not to can) green chilies

I just finished canning a lot of green chilies. It was fun. I wrote a how to or how not to

• When you order your bountiful basket add the 25lb bag of green chilies for $12.50. Who doesn't need 25lbs of green chilies right? Besides, it's only $12.50. That's a great deal!    

• Spend the weekend trying to figure out what to do with the chilies. Wonder why in the world you just bought 25lbs of green chilies when you only ever make 1 dish that uses green chilies. 

• By the beginning of the week the chilies have started to go bad. It really is time to do something with them and you should start right away. (I didn't know exactly what I was going to do with them but I found out you have to roast and peel them first so I started there). 

Image Source here

• Roast the chilies. We used the grill outside. Be careful not to char them to a crisp. You just want to blister the skins on the outside. Don't let your husband take over, this part is very enjoyable. He may try several times to do the roasting but don't let him. After roasting, place the chilies in a lidded container (with the lid on) and let them steam until ready to peel.

• Let your 2 year old fall asleep and take a nap at a ridiculously late hour for a nap. 

 

• Peel the chilies. Remove the stems and seeds.  

• Give little girl a peach, cucumber, shoes... anything to try and keep her entertained so that you can keep peeling.

•   Take a break for peeling to can pickles that have been waiting for a few days now.

•   Continue to peel chilies. Invite grandma, grandpa, and Aunt Jen over to keep kids entertained so that you can keep peeling. Send kids out to the garden to play.

• Peel chilies late into the night. Have your husband stay up even later to finish peeling after you and the kids have gone to bed. ... Ok enough peeling but this does take a long time. Put the peeled chilies into the fridge to finish tomorrow

• Next night, de-seed the chilies in the living room while watching a movie. This takes a long time. (note the messy house and Heber's quite book on the floor, also being used as a pillow in a previous picture. We obviously neglect all other duties while trying to get the canning done. If I had more money maybe I would hire someone to come a clean. But probably not really.)

• Pack chilies into jars, pour boiling water over them, put lids on, and processes in a pressure canner. 13 lbs for 35 min. 

• Post info on your blog and sigh at your terrible picture taking abilities. Someday I will learn to take decent pictures (or at least get a better camera) and my blog will be full of beautiful pictures. 
 

I froze some chilies to use in salsa once we have ripe tomatoes. I am also going to use some to try and make a green enchilada sauce using some of my green tomatoes. I'll let you know how it turns out. I feel like all of my extra time is spent canning and we haven't even got to all the tomato stuff yet.

I'm not sure if all of this work was worth it. I guess we will see when I actually come up with some good recipes that use green chilies other then creamy chicken enchiladas. Any ideas? 

starting school

School starts next week for us. I have mixed feelings about it.

I am looking forward to having more of a set routine and less craziness and changing plans and trip after trip. It will be nice to get back on a somewhat regular schedule for all of us. I love the fall time and school starting means that Autumn is near. I love the cool crisp air and the bountiful garden harvest and canning season and an all around excitement that fills the air this time of year. I guess it's more of the time of year I am excited about and not so much starting school. ... Ok it's not fall quite yet- it is still hot, especially today- but school is starting and that makes me think of fall and wish for fall. Although I am not taking any classes, Ben will be and he always shares the interesting things he is learning. He is taking some great classes this semester and I'm sure we will have some good conversations on the topics he discusses in class. 

Heber playing in the leaves, Fall 2009

Ben will be taking 4 classes this semester. I am going to miss having him home a lot and being able to get things done around the house. This summer he has been so great to get dishes done, work in the garden, and fix up the house. Once school starts, he won't have the time to do as much around the house. I am going to miss the freedom of summer and not have a set schedule to follow. I will miss going on trips. The school year always feels so crazy and busy but it's a different crazy and busy then summer is.  I work at the University and summers are really nice and slow. The school year is the exact opposite. Due to some changes that have been made (new computer systems and such), this year is going to be especially hectic.

It has been a fun summer filled with lots of trips and visiting family. Goodbye summer. We will miss you. Hello autumn. I'm sure you will be filled with lots of harvesting, canning, and learning. There will also be trips for visiting family. We love to visit family.

Heber and Great Grandpa reading "Fox in Socks"

Life (and mostly work) will be busy so I may not be blogging as much. I seem to be sporadic blogger anyway.

These kids

are a gift from God. They teach me more every day.

Yesterday I was feeling really grumpy and irritated... this seems to be a very common theme in my life for the last several weeks. I have no idea why really but I wish I could just cut it out already. Well Yesterday I was feel very irritated with Heber (napless sleep deprived 2-year-old can make you feel that way I guess). He was crying and fussing about something and I had had enough. I picked him up and took him to the couch where I held him while we both cried. I closed my eyes to say a little prayer for help. Heber asked "what you doin' mom?" So I explained that I was saying a prayer in my head to ask Heavenly Father to help me to be patient and kind and to be happy. I was asking for help to be a better mom.

Later in the evening while I was getting the kids ready for bed Heber asks "Jesus loves you mom? He helps you to be happy? He helps you be a better mom?" Yes, He does. "You happy mommy?" I'm trying to be. "Ok, I gotta get my globes (gloves) on. I'm going to work. Bye, I love you, I'll be back soon."  I love you too. Wait, come back here, it's time for bed.

Oh joy, please go to sleep. He then proceeded to stay up until midnight while I finished canning the jam. In his defense though, he took a nap from 4-9pm. He is right in between needing a nap and not so we keep getting these crazy sleep schedules. I am not one for schedules and I sleep when I'm tired and eat when I'm hungry. My kids do the same.

I do love these kids. I hate when I am always feeling so irritated and impatient with them. I say I hate it when I can't get anything done and the kids need me all the time. I am going to try to stop all of this negativity and grumpiness. I am trying to be more Christlike in my mothering. I am trying to be more gentle. These little ones have such sweet spirits.

Eeva eating avocados. This girl loved to eat by her self.

I would like to write my ideas and thoughts on gentle parenting and Christlike love but I am having a hard time gathering what I want to say... so someday in another post. Until then, here are some cute pictures of the kids. I was trying to get Heber to stand next to Eeva for a nice picture but he was being too silly.  I set Eeva in the crib for a bit and she pulled herself up to standing. She was quite happy about it too.

I told Heber to just stand by Eeva and do a nice face and he said "I won't."

Fine then I'll just take Eeva's picture.

"Ok, ok I will"

 

 After this one I just gave up on trying to get a nice picture of the two of them. 

At lest I got a lot of funny silly ones.