One of those "I'm Not Breathing" Mother Moments

So, a couple of days ago I was happily chatting away with my sister Candy during what I thought was naptime. Mid-sentence I heard an unusual sound coming out of Cooper's room. I went in to check. . Since Cooper has gotten more mobile and has been watching us more carefully, he'd taken a little too much interest in his second story then I was comfortable with. I moved the crib away from the wall, but closer to his bookshelf. I was pleased with the "equidistance". Imagine my surprise when I went in to check on him, only to find that he had pulled a picture off of his bookshelf and shattered the glass, and was playing with it in his crib. He was actually raising the shards above his head and dropping them onto the frame.

I couldn't believe it. Luckily, he didn't cut himself. So, as punishment for being up to no good, I made him sleep in his sister's pink bed.

Also, in other sleeping news, the babies are sleeping in the same room at night now!

(I realize now that you totally can't see them, but just imagine...)

Battle of the 'oopers..

So, we've decided to bring Trooper into our house full time. I've always had images in my head of what I would want in a dog, and Trooper is all of those things. He is the type of dog that just lays around during the day and lets kids ride him in the evening. One of his only faults is that he thinks that he needs to go to the bathroom about 6 times each night, which has resulted in him sleeping in his crate at night.

I do have one unforseen problem however. We never noticed how close "Trooper" was to "Cooper". So, half the time I mix their names up. I never noticed how many times I said Cooper throughout the day, but now Trooper answers every time I do. Every time I say, "Cooper, no!", Trooper thinks that he is in trouble. It's awful. I have no idea what to do.

I present to you, the battle of the 'oopers.

What do I do?!

Happy Birthday Dad!

As I mentioned before, we headed out to the cabins to hop on the boat for our grand lake tour. It was so fun to put Coop in the middle of the lawn and watch him try to take in all the grass and water. He was so excited, it was adorable.

Lawns, Lake, Boat, Ice Cream...pretty good b-day.

Love you Daddy.

Barometer

Tonight was our annual "take the boat out for the first time of the summer" family excursion. We had so much fun celebrating Memorial Day, Dad's Birthday (Happy Birthday Dad), and also how warm the weather was today. I sat down to blog about the experience, and I was going through the bunch of pictures we took and I came upon this picture.

Tim is a very special person. Tim is talented in many ways but I think two of his talents are paramount. Tim has a unique ability to make anyone comfortable. He genuinely loves people, and will seek out anyone he knows anywhere we go.

Tim's second talent is less known to everyone outside of his family. Tim is our family's own special person barometer. My belief is that Tim's spirit is so guileless that he doesn't understand when people are not genuine. I've finally learned that I need to pay attention to Tim's feelings in this regard, he's never wrong. A few times in the past Tim has tried to tell our family when he feels uncomfortable around someone, and always we have difficult experiences with those people.

I believe Tim's barometer is telling us something...

Currency

Today I was grocery shopping with Tim, Cooper and Abby, and once we had loaded our groceries from both Costco and Wal-mart into the bed of our truck (in 80 degree weather) we got inside and found out that the truck decided it wasn't going to work. I found myself trying to make the best of the situation. (Thank you everyone at Paul Mitchell for covering for Steve so he could come rescue us) I even went so far as to find a baby spoon in the diaper bag so Tim could make sure that the ice cream didn't go to waste.

As I was sitting there I was thinking. Why can't my energy of wanting something to work SO BADLY transfer to the non-working engine? Why can't my hopeful wish to pay all bills translate into bills paid? It makes me think of Greenzo from 30 Rock. Speaking of the future he says, "If there was money in the future instead of just hugs!" That's how I was feeling today. I wish the new currency could be happy thoughts or good energy.

Should we start a movement?

Home

I have always loved Julie Andrews. To me she is the epitome of class and grace. I was so happy a few weeks ago when I found out that she had written about her early years. The book is up until the year she starred in Mary Poppins. I was so fascinated reading how difficult her life was as a child, and I was so amazed at her resiliency and humility. I would really recommend the book to anyone who has ever watched her movies.

Thanks Maria!

Coldplay

Hey...for all you Coldplay lovers out there...

Coldplay is offering a new CD called LeftRightLeftRight on their website for free download for all their fans. It basically compiles some of their classic songs, but they are performed live, and a little bit different. I've just started listening, and I love it!

Currently, these are things I'm dealing with.

I've talked to doctors about it, but every time my kids hit about 2 months old, my hair falls out. Gross I know. The worst part is, that it does grow back, but it looks like my hair is REALLY damaged. It grows back around the front of my face, and I feel like I'm six all over again. It's especially fun when it's about an inch long and sticks straight up. (No pictures available)

So, thank you children.

Little Ab's has really had a difficult time with her skin. When she was a few days old her face was extremely dry so I used some Baby Aveeno on her face. It burned her little cheeks so bad, she cried and cried. It left her looking like she had a very severe sunburn, and her skin peeled for a while. It was so sad. Her skin has stayed very dry, but I've been very reluctant to use more product on it. Does anyone have any suggestions? I'm totally open.

I know I've said it before, and everyone is probably tired of hearing it, but I love this little girl.

The Sweetest Thing

We all know that some days are filled with things we would rather not deal with. Bills, whining, crazy people, but I'm always amazed at how things usually seem to end on a sweet note.

Cooper is learning to appreciate the finer things in life, namely, the tub lollipop. Somehow it always ends up wrong end in, but he's getting the hang of it.

My day yesterday ended up not only sweet but also fried. This lady deep fried oreo's at our house last night. (Stay far away!)

The bounty.

(Please disregard my Christmas plates that our house has been using for two years now..)

How could everyday not end well with Steven around? Seriously the sweetest guy, I'm never surprised when I see him doing something like this, he's just too amazing.

I like to think that Abby has a pretty sweet life. She is so well taken care of and looked after. (Just not usually by me...)

Pretty sweet.

Lil' Abner

We can't believe how fast our little girl is growing! Abby went to the doctor this week, and we found out that she is 12 1/2 pounds and 24 inches long. That puts her in the 75th and 95th percentiles. She is happy and calm, and we love her so much!

BTW- The blog title is Steven's nickname for Abby, which I think is pretty ironic considering that our Abby is named after my sister Abby who starred in the play Lil Abner in high school, and Steve didn't even know that...weird?

I'm sure that I'm not the only one who has been affected by the recent state of our world. I've often found myself worrying about a myriad of things, from how the economy is affecting our family, to raising children (especially a daughter) in our day and age. Yesterday I was sitting and thinking about things, and I admit, my thoughts weren't on the positive side. I was beginning to feel overwhelmed by my thoughts when I looked RIGHT next to me and saw these two guys.

I felt instantly sheepish. I was reminded that no matter how I struggle with different issues, my family is the most important.

Isn't it amazing that families can be together forever?

Fun In Sick Bay

For Mother's Day this year, we all got colds. So, Mason, Cooper, Abby (who also got shots yesterday), and myself are all home sick.

Thankfully, little boys manage to keep things happy around here...

Resourceful Matt

It's a little startling to me that I didn't hear this fire alarm going off, and also that I didn't hear Matt stacking chairs to turn it off in the middle of the night.

Good thing it was a false alarm!

A Mother's Day Post? Surely not...

I've been struggling for the past few days to come to a conclusion about what I wanted to post for Mother's Day.

(Thank you Bernard and Marsha for my adorable Mother's Day Cookies)

I've been thinking so much this last week about mothers, but more specifically about family.Two conferences ago, Elder Uchtdorf gave a talk and spoke about his mother raising his family during World War 2 in Germany. At the time I remember thinking, if that mother can raise a child during that horrible time, and influence his life in such a positive way, I feel much more confident that I can do it now during these troubled days. During the last few months and even weeks, I've watched as so many around me have extremely difficult experiences. We've had some ourselves, but nothing compared to the struggles of those around me. I'm so amazed at the examples I've seen of people pulling themselves up by the bootstraps and making their lives better. I hope to be an example to my children of someone who always made their lives better.

I am so grateful that I still have my mother with me. She is so amazing, and one of my very best friends. I'm so grateful that my children have the opportunity to be with her. I can't even fathom the struggle my parents had raising all ten of us. I'm very inspired by her, and I feel so grateful that I know her so well.

We feel so lucky that our kids get to be near both of their Grandma's. I'm so grateful that after a medical scare this week, Marsha is feeling better. I've never seen such and example of selfless love and humility. We love our Grandma Daines very much, and I'm so happy she's feeling better.

The last few months we've been so blessed to get to have my brother Matt and his two boys here with us. I know this holiday was celebrating mothers, but I have learned as much from Matt about being a good mom as any of my sisters. I have been so impressed watching Matt parent his children, he's such a blessing to me. When we have eight kids running around here, it's so fun to watch Matt keep everybody in line. I'm so excited for his future as a father..

And for me and my part...

I am so blessed. I could go on and on about each thing I love, but I think it's sufficient to say that I love my children more each day. I remember people asking my what I wanted to be when I grew up, and I always knew that my greatest wish was to be a mother. I feel so grateful that I have my little boy and girl, and especially my husband who supports us.

My life is a miracle.

Not everyone gets to have their wildest dreams come true.

Just A Bunch of Crazies...

Okay, I admit it. I was VERY apprehensive about having a daughter. I wasn't sure I was equipped to make sure that she got her dose of femininity from me. I never have liked pink, I have never liked bows, and I was very concerned about the whole thing.

Well, I have news. I love having a daughter. I love pink for her. I love putting bows on her. She is so much fun, and I can't believe how much I love her already. She is doing a few more things these days.

Abby has this weird desire to always have something in front of her face. She often manages to get something there, and I always manage to move it. Naptime goes on like this everyday...

Abby has been so lucky to have so many cousins around. On Sunday I discovered this. Mason had his Dad heat up his little warmer over and over again so he could find Abby and make sure that she was warm. So cute.

She knows exactly when I would love for her to NOT go to the bathroom. Every time a "special" outfit makes an appearance, she blows right on through. (Thank you Auntie Abby for her little jammies...I'm sure they are going to recover from their traumatic experience.)

Our little girl smiles at everything. Often I can't feed her because she just wants to smile and talk. This week we had such a fun experience with her. Steve was tickling her for the first time and she let out her first little Davis cackle. It scared her so bad that she started to cry a little. Since then it's pretty easy to get her to laugh, I just loved that the Davis laugh can actually scare even the people who produce it!

And yes, Cooper is up to no good. He is starting to try to say words, and I of course think it's adorable. For instance, the other night we were having a conversation while he was in the tub (somewhat one sided) when all the sudden he started to say "Blah Blah Blah" at me. I at first thought it was very fun and so I started to copy him. It has completely backfired because when ever I try to talk to him now he just says, "Blah Blah Blah". It's almost like I'm being told to finish my story, or he's giving me the "Yada Yada Yada" version of his.

Just crazy.

Happy Birthday!

We celebrated Steven's birthday this last Saturday. Thanks to his uber-cool boss George(pictured below), Steve got to have the day off!

Steve decided that he wanted to keep his day pretty low key, so that's what we did.

We got to go see our newest niece, Lydia. She was absolutely gorgeous, and we can't wait to spend some more time with her.

After we met Lydia we ended up having an impromptu jump on the trampoline. It was Cooper's first time and he loved it.

We then went over to Kaden and Mason's baseball games. The weather was beautiful, but apparently 1 year olds don't appreciate sunshine without naps. Who knew?

After the games we headed out to Wolf Lodge for a birthday dinner.

(What do they do to that meat?!!)

Happy Birthday Steven!