All About the Dolls (and tons of pics from their photo shoot!)

For the past month, Serenity and Scarlette have both been 2 years old. I thought it’d be fun to do a little photo shoot of the girls in between their birthdays.  We tried to throw Theo into a couple, and it didn’t go over very well.  Looking at these pictures it’s fun to see how much they’ve grown and changed in the past year.  They have the sweetest little relationship, and are truly the best of friends.  It’s definitely amusing how each of their pictures portrays their individual personalities so perfectly!

Serenity for example, is a bubbly excited little lady.  She loves to make other people happy.  She is a performer, and can memorize ANY song, and ANY monologue in ANY show after hearing it or watching it just a couple of times ("Uptown Funk," "Dear Future Husband," or "I Love to see the Temple" just to name a few!)  She smiles and the whole room just lights up with energy and fun.  She is a SMART little cookie too. I mean HOLY COW she keeps me on my toes. 

When my grandpa was in town, Serenity, He, and I went to the store and he bought Serenity a bouncy ball.  In the car he asked if she was going to share with Scarlette when we got home.  At first she said, “uh, I don’t think so.” So I sang to her “sharing our toys is fun to do, fun to do, to do to do.” Without missing a beat she starts singing, “sharing our toys not fun to do….” Grandpa and I couldn’t hold back the laughs.  

Whenever she asks me to do something, and I tell her I can’t right now, she responds with, “sure you can mom, you can do anything you put your mind to…” Everything I’ve ever said just comes right back to bite me in the booty ha.

If ever I sound like I’m getting frustrated, not even with her, on the phone, or with traffic, or with tanner, she will say to me an array of different things I’ve said to her: “hey mom why don’t you take a deeeeeep breath and count to four?” or “mommy, it makes me SOOOOO happy when you are calm and nice to daddy…” ß I mean seriously?? Or “when you’re feeling frustrated, take a deep breath, and ask for help.” Basically what I’m saying is she is QUICK!

Scarlette is just a sweet, but she is tender.  She really lets herself feel her emotions! When she’s excited, she is SO excited, and when she is sad, she is DEVISTATED.  She is a little dare devil and literally has no fear.  She loves to get scared, or to chase people down and scare them.  She isn’t like Serenity socially.  She likes to weigh the situation and get a feel for someone before she can jump on in and be her goofy funny little self, but she isn’t shy.  She is so confident already in herself, and completely ok with playing by herself or working out problems. 

She is so observant.  She watches everything people do for example… I have the pantry pretty organized, but in order to get fruit snacks I have to move certain things around to pull the box off the shelf.  Instead of just dumping the other food off the shelf, she remembers exactly how I move the other food around on the shelf and will duplicate the process to get herself a snack, She is so patient with herself too.  If she can’t do things on the first or 40^th try, it doesn’t matter, she will keep working through it until she gets it right.

Scarlette is definitely more “motherly” of the two.  One day when I was watching my nephew, all the kids had been sleeping and while the girls sleep, I put the child gate at their door so they are dissuaded from jumping up out of bed every five seconds.  Monroe was out in the front room, and I had been doing my hair in the bathroom.  I had to rinse out product so I just left the door open, and mid shower I heard Monroe start to cry.  About a minute later he stopped, so I kind of freaked out, like what happened??? I get out and run to the front room and see Scarlette just sitting next to him holding his pacifier in his mouth.  She had scaled the child gate that she has never climbed before or since, to go help her little cousin who was crying!

 

She is also a little goof, and most days she reminds me of the minions on despicable me… and some days the purple minions if you know what I mean ;) lol

Even though its sad some days that time seems to be going by so quickly, it is so nice to see their personalities develop and how much they love each other.  Even though it gets a little crazy in the house, there is nothing better than hearing the two of them run all over just giggling and laughing and playing together!  Theo is such a lucky little guy to have two of the greatest big sisters of all time! 

     

Jess

Getting by as a Mommy of 3!

So much has happened since my last post, but basically we moved to Utah, I got pregnant, and because I get so sick when I’m pregnant, keeping up my posts was the last thing on my mind.  BUT, now we are in a new little place that we love, down to only one dog, and up one more little baby (the sweetest little boy ever!!)  

Life with three kids is not MUCH different than life with two kids so far… The girls LOVE baby Theo, and are very sweet and gentle with him.  Life not pregnant however, is way different than life being pregnant for me!  Because for most of my pregnancy I would throw up anywhere from 5-25 times a day, doing anything was hard (playing with the girls, cooking meals, cleaning the house, going to church… everything!)  Now that I’m not pregnant it’s nice to be able to do things again.  It seems like I had forgotten what it was like to be busy and productive.  Its amazing how much easier things seem since Theo was born, even though we added another babe to the family. 

That being said, my days are busy!  Breakfast in the morning, dishes, laundry, cuddling Theo, playing and reading with the ladies, cleaning rooms, exercising… it is BUSY.  How do I find time to exercise you ask??  The first couple days we tried to go on walks, but pushing the ladies in the stroller, and wearing Theo was well… the WORST.  So now… the kids have playtime in their room, and then Theo and I literally jog back and forth down the hall together until I reach 10,000 steps on my pedometer.  Something that SHOULD only take me, I dunno, maybe an hour, some days takes up to 3 and a half hours!! Don’t ask me how… It probably has something to do with the fact I get distracted and will do a load of laundry, or load the dishwasher or have to handle some new ‘drama’ with the girls lol.  Nap times, if I get all three down at once, I try to do a little yoga to relax and clear my head. 

I feel lucky!  I’ve only had a couple of days where I thought I was going to lose it.  Most days it seems I’m able to find patience and love I didn’t know I had in me.  Whenever I have “free time,” where I’m not using the hallway as a track/treadmill, I read!  On one of the particularly hard days, I decided that I needed to figure out how to make sure those kind of days didn’t happen again (or at least happen on a regular basis).  I remembered a conversation I had with my Aunt about a couple parenting books that she loves.  I reached out to her to find out what they were, and next thing I know, like the angel she is, she ordered them for me!!! So currently I’m reading “Christlike Parenting.”  It is the most uplifting book about parenting I’ve ever read.  It totally helps me keep a clear mind, and not beat myself up about making mistakes.  Basically, I’ve learned that when I wake up thinking there is something I want to do for myself that day, the whole day falls apart. Right now, I just need to fit stuff in where I can, and keep my kids as my priority.  When I approach the day with no expectations… it’s usually a pretty good day!  It takes all my energy not to get to stressed out, and to stay calm amid the chaos, but like I said, so far so good. 

I recently read the talk ‘Daughters of God’ given by M. Russell Ballard.  The whole talk is seriously incredible, but there is one particular quote that I really loved and read over and over again multiple times a day:

“There is no one perfect way to be a good mother. Each situation is unique. Each mother has different challenges, different skills and abilities, and certainly different children. The choice is different and unique for each mother and each family. Many are able to be “full-time moms,” at least during the most formative years of their children’s lives, and many others would like to be. Some may have to work part-or full-time; some may work at home; some may divide their lives into periods of home and family and work. What matters is that a mother loves her children deeply and, in keeping with the devotion she has for God and her husband, prioritizes them above all else.”

I think we, as moms, like to beat ourselves up about not being perfect.  When we see other moms who seem to have ‘it all together’ we let ourselves feel like we aren’t doing a good job.  Elder Ballard reminds us, that as long as we love our children and put them first, we are doing a good job, and that is so comforting!

Every day is filled with new challenges and struggles, but all in all, there is nothing I would rather being doing with my time than exactly what I’m doing! 

Jess

p.s. Here is the link to the talk if you’d like to read it:

p.p.s Here is a link to the book "Christlike Parenting" on Amazon incase you'd like to check it out.

Oh the places you'll go...

As promised, the rest of the pics from our Utah/California trip... not ALL of the pictures mind you, but the ones I'm willing to put up :) Enjoy!

Grandpa took Serenity and me to an Antique shop... She was so cute pushing a little teddy bear around in this buggy, I wish I could have gotten it it for her... the owner thought she was so cute, she gave her the teddy bear for free!  This car would have been the best souvenir.. but it was already sold.

  

The girls had a ton of fun and Gigi and B-Pops house.  They were even the first people to use my grandmas giant tub in her bathroom.  Both girls loved being outside in the backyard.  I was worried it would be super hot there, but the weather was perfect.  Serenity and her cousins ran back and forth, for hours it seemed, along the side of the house, and Scarlette Jo enjoyed watching them! It really is the perfect house for their great-grand kids to come visit!

  

  

Other highlights of the CA trip... 

My grandpa made me one of his famous maps... he just loves to pull out the old pen and paper and draw people maps any chance he can. My favorite part about this picture is he is looking up the directions on his iphone (which I could have done on mine...) , and then he drew it out for me... Imagine what the kind of maps he drew a few years ago before this handy feature! HA

AND this Menu from a french restaurant we went to... mmmm yummy...  

Scarlette Jo and I enjoyed a beautiful evening on the beach for my good friends wedding! 

 

  

The girls also had a blast at the Riddle Ranch (my sister's home).  Serenity learned how to collect chicken eggs (whoops sorry she broke one Josh...) and feed the baby chicks... and Scarlette learned how to ride a lawn mower (without the blade on...) Josh did insist however, that she wear noise canceling ear muffs...

  

 

  

The girls got to see quite a bit of family in Utah.  Tanner's little sister loved playing with them on the swing set.  Preston turned 18, so we joined a bunch of his friends at the a fun center for the party.  They also saw my grandpa Bill, and Tanner's grandma, and of course their Granny Kim and Grandpa Damon.  One of the highlights of the trip for ME, was spending time with some of my good friends!  

  

  

On one particularly wretched evening, Ashley saved me and we went out to eat with the girls! 

  

We also went to the Aquarium with Ashley and Jason!  It was so fun!  One of the best moments was going to the Otter Outpost... there were signs all over the place advertising the otter exhibit in the "native to utah" section... Since none of us have seen otters in the wild in Utah, we were pretty skeptical of the exhibit.  Rightly so, because it was EMPTY!  

 

 It was fun to see the babes next to all these beautiful animals!  Scarlette LOVED watching the animals, and Serenity loved posing for pics... 

  

    

 I wish I had the patients to wait it out for some good pics... but I got a couple of the animals...

  

  

 Other note-able moments if you will... Both girls really grew to love chocolate... not sure how it happened, because I am NOT a fan...

  

and Serenity's strawberry addiction got a little out of control...

 

 The traveling took it's toll on everyone...

  

 

 All in all it was a very eventful and busy trip, and in the end, the girls were definitely glad to get a break from all the excitement.  

                 Jess