Pioneer Day Primary Activity

This was a excellent activity put on by the primary. They dressed up as pioneers, brought their three favorite possessions, ate watermelon, went on a trek, played games, made covered wagons and had a blast!

Candace's pioneer outfit complete with flip-flops.

Kimber made these adorable aprons for the girls!

Brian is saying here, "Make sure you come to church tomorrow." I thought that was cute.

No one can make Joshua laugh more easily than Candace.

Best Friends

Joshua eating his first cantaloupe. He loves to suck on them as well as pieces of watermelon.

Talking with Dad

I just spent a good portion of the last half hour reading my friend's blog. Thanks Emily for your wonderful writing style and your hilarious accounts of day to day life. I now have a renewed desire to write in this blog with a purpose, at least most of the time. I have to confess that I hadn't started a blog until just recently because I am terrified to write in it. The blogs that I read are so creatively written and are so interesting that I've been thoroughly intimidated thus far. So far I've mostly included pictures, but I want to include more of my thoughts and ideas. So here it goes....

I've decided that I'm going to focus my writing efforts on documenting my journey to fulfill the following four goals:
Becoming a better mother
Keeping a more organized and clean house
Staying in shape and losing weight
Finding joy in life

So, to start, I need to summarize where I am in each of these areas at this point in time. I have two beautiful children, Candace (3) and Joshua (6 months). I love them dearly and I am so grateful they have joined our family. Candace is one smart cookie. She keeps me on my toes and always has something to say. I love how quickly she learns new things and how tender her heart is at times.

A funny story from yesterday - We had James' brother (Chad) over for a picnic. He is single and becomes Candace's slave every time he visits. He is a wonderfully attentive uncle who caters to his neice's every whim - as evidenced by this overheard conversation.
Candace - "Let's go dig in the dirt by the window."
Chad - "Maybe we can do that later."
Candace - "Maybe we can do that NOW."
Candace and a defeated Chad, grab their buckets and start for the window.

Joshua is a delightfully mild child with a keen interest in his older sister. He loves to watch her every move and giggles almost constantly in her presence. He's almost sitting up now and is threatening to become mobile soon.

I love being a mother. However, I lose my patience easily and I am not as attentive as I want to be. I thought James and I had figured out how to discipline our daughter, but she continually throws us curve balls and outsmarts us. Right now I am frustrated with one particular thing - Candace has lately had a hard time staying in her own bed ALL night. (Contrast that with her infant brother who has been sleeping through the night since shortly after he was born). I am tired of getting up at night with a three-year-old. We never had problems with this before and I am at a loss of what to do.

My house is a disaster most of the time. I have been doing better recently, but I have a lot of room for improvement in this area. The thing that really disgusts me about this situation is that I had a wonderful mother who taught me good work habits and excellent cleaning skills, both of which I choose to rebel against more often than not. I know what I need to do, I just need to devote more time to this.

As for my weight issues, I have been running and swimming with my younger sister, Stephanie, on an off now for about 6 weeks. I am, however, still just as heavy as when I went in to deliver my second baby. I have a long way to go.

This entry was not meant to complain in any way about my situations, just to provide a honest glimpse into the areas of my life that I wish to improve in. I will choose to find joy in life by doing the small things that I know keep me in the proper perspective.

Softball Game

On Friday we all got to go to James' softball game.

He plays on a couple of different teams,

one is an intramural team with the ward.

With his own baseball hat!

Cousin Pierce and Joshua hanging out.

Candace made some friends at the game. The
little girl farthest right told her she was "missing
something" from her shirt. I guess she's already learned
about modesty. We have some catching up to do.

Joshua and Uncle Bryan

First Fast Sunday

We had a big event last Sunday in our house. At least it was big for me. It was my first Fast Sunday in a long time. I had been pregnant or nursing for over a year now and so that meant no fasting for me. However, this day was eventually to come and it wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be. I didn't think I made that big of a deal over it, but evidently I was wrong. As we were walking to the car today Candace told me, "Mom, I can't eat anything. I'm fasting." I asked her why and she said, "Because I want to, it's my first time!" What a funny chick. She comes up with things like this all the time and I love it.

Oh, I did I ever mention that Candace has her dad's incredible eyebrows!

To Everything There is a Season....

The season for sickness and injury has rolled around to our house again. Candace burned her knees when she touched them to my brother's tail pipe on his new motorcycle and Joshua has a cold and a double ear infection. Everything always happens together! Candace has been Miss Dramatic with her knees, at times remembering her burns and stating emphatically that she can't walk anywhere and then at other times completely forgetting about them and running around playing like normal. Joshua has been up for two nights straight now. That's when you know it's an ear infection. Kids just don't sleep well with those. It's his third in his short 6 month life. He's on the border now for consideration for tubes.

On a lighter note, I found some old videos of Candace when she was 17 months old. I totally forgot how this stage was for us. It's crazy. I watch my cousin with her 16 month old and others with kids in this same age range and I forgot how hard this stage was. The kids can't really communicate that well, but they usually have this incredibly independent spirit. That combination doesn't really work well for the parents. But they learn how to communicate faster than we realize and the difficult stage is soon over.

Candace turns 3!

For her friend Birthday Party, the neighbors graciously let us borrow a couple swimming pools. The kids swam, ate cupcakes and had a blast.

These are pictures from Candace's family party. She got a bike and wanted to ride it outside. Susie, Brian and Bresa are three of her friends here at Wymount. She wore her helmet that entire night, even while opening presents and playing with them. Pay particular attention to her train cake. My sister Stephanie and I slaved over that and it still looked pretty ridiculous.

She loves her ducky and fishing game. Thanks Grandma Taylor.

While we were getting ready for her party, I found Candace entertaining Joshua with this plastic bag. Enjoy!

Part One

No one but James can really appreciate just how difficult it was to upload the pictures and videos in this post. Our camera has seen it's last days. I had to hold the battery cover tightly shut throughout this process while simultaneously turning the camera on, sticking scissors into a small hole to switch the camera to the "play" mode and then clicking the mouse to navigate the uploading process. And through it all I couldn't move an inch. My hand had such bad cramps!

At any rate here are some recent videos and pictures. There are quite a few because in the last week it was the 4th of July as well as Candace's 3rd birthday. Most of these are just cute, but some are pretty darn hilarious!

These first ones are some hilarious pictures of Candace feeding Joshua some rice cereal mixed with sweet potato. I had to keep a close watch on her because every once in a while she would jam that spoon so far down his throat he would threaten to throw up everything he just ate.

These are from the 4th of July. We spent a fun day at my aunt Darlene's house. Chad, James' brother came with us for the day. Candace liked the fireworks for about 2 seconds and then much preferred the nearby swing set. Joshua on the otherhand, loved them. He got so excited and waved his chubby little arms and legs each time a new one went off.

Mr. Lucky

Lucky Charms has always been my favorite cereal and honestly I don't really think it tastes that good. What has made it more magical than all other cereal is that every birthday since I can remember I have woken up with a box of Lucky Charms under my bed. In my family of origin Mr. Lucky comes every birthday with this surprise. Candace is turning 3 tomorrow and so far we've carried on this tradition. However, tonight as I put Candace to bed, she asked if Mr. Lucky was coming and when I replied that he was, she got a terrified look on her face. She started crying and demanded that we call him and not have him come. My own daughter was rejecting this sacred tradition! I have since let it go and Mr. Lucky knows he is not welcome here tonight. I hope his feelings aren't hurt permanently.

4th of July Hot Air Balloons