Just Another Week

With school under way and the weather cooling off life has taken on a very normal routine. Normally this would drive us crazy, we'd say we're getting old and boring, but actually it's kind of nice. Summer wore us out! Okay so maybe we are getting old and boring.

Myles is so close to walking. He'll take three steps and then realize he's walking so then he'll drop to his knees and crawl. Ah! At this point it would actually be easier if he were crawling. But he is still my pride and joy.

Mekinley scored her first goal in soccer last week. It was so exciting! You would have thought it was the tie breaking goal of the World Cup. All six players, three from each team, were right in front of the goal kicking the ball. They kind of formed a circle around it. You should have seen it, six little legs just going for it and all the parents screaming them on. Of course none of them knew what they were doing and the ball wasn't moving because all the legs were kicking at once. Suddenly one little kick broke the ball free of the circle and it rolled into the goal. And it was Kinley! It was so funny! It just as easily could have been any of the girls, but it was our Kinster. And thank goodness. She was so thrilled! And after it was like a switch had been turned on. She was suddenly a great soccer player! Up until this goal she's been very reserved. It's made us crazy because she hasn't been aggressive at all. She would still get mad and feel bad because everyone wasn't taking turns, but now she's a maniac. It is hillarious and a lot of fun to watch. And yesterday she made another goal. Yea! We might have a soccer player on our hands after all.

Sierra, as always, has kept us entertained this week. Last Saturday Rob was gone so the kids and I had a little party. We had pizza and popped some popcorn and were watching a movie. Sierra loves popcorn, but she also loves her dad. When there was just a little popcorn left she told me, "Mom, Daddy loves popcorn; we better save him some." I thought it was a sweet idea. I told her to just set it on the counter to save for him. But a few minutes later she was eating the popcorn again. She caught my eye, but I didn' say a word. I really didn't care either way. But she said, "Mom, Daddy doesn't like popcorn that much. We'll just save him a little bit." Fine by me. She kept eating but made sure she left him a little bit. A few more minutes later, she was up at the counter eating the popcorn again. She saw me see her eating it but again I didn't challenge her on it, but I could tell she felt guilty. She said with her eyebrows furrowed, "Um....Mom? Daddy doesn't like popcorn." So that answered it. She could eat all the popcorn guilt-free. It made me laugh. After all, she really did try to think of her dad. The popcorn was just too tempting.

Well, that's it. I told you we're boring. But who said boring has to be a bad thing? Just try explaining that to Rob.

What I love About Being a Mom

Last night as I was laying in bed my day was running through my head. I was feeling frustrated, stressed, and pretty overwhelmed. Just for starters as to how my day had gone, I had found a container of chocolate frosting in my fridge. It wasn't that old, but I didn't have plans to use it anytime soon so I took it out of the fridge to clean out. The dishwasher was already going so I just put it on the counter to deal with later. A little while later I was vacuuming the stairs, the last thing on my list of a full morning cleaning the house. I left Sierra and Myles in my kitchen/living room. When I left them Myles was playing with his truck and Sierra was coloring. Pretty safe, right? After all I was just vacuuming the stairs three feet away from them. My bad. My very, very bad. I had done maybe four stairs when I noticed it was too quiet. I peered around the corner of the stairs to check on Sierra and Myles, and there they were, sitting in the middle of my floor covered from head to toe in chocolate icing, not to mention the three foot chocolate icing radius surrounding them. They both gave me the biggest grin ever, and Sierra said in the way only Sierra could with a full mouth, "Mom, what ya doin' with the chocate cake?"

Even last night in bed, I still wasn't seeing the humor in it. My thoughts then wandered to motherhood in general. I was trying to remember what it felt like to not be tired, and honestly, I couldn't remember. I started thinking about all of the challenges we mothers face like a constantly messy house, a lingering headache, the dreaded upcoming flu season, the sleepless nights, I could go on and on. But then my mind wandered to the real challenges such as if I'm raising my children the right way with strong morals and values, good character, kind empathetic hearts, etc. Am I teaching them the right things and keeping them healthy and safe? Okay, so now there was no way I was going to fall asleep. I had thought myself into a panic.

But then I started to think about what I love about being a mom like Sat. and Sun. mornings when the kids climb into bed with me and Rob in the morning and we snuggle, talk, and play. Like reading stories at bedtime with Sierra on my lap, Mekinley snuggled into my side, and Myles trying to wiggle in somewhere. Like going to get Myles in his room when he wakes up. He is always so happy to see me and jumps and laughs and smiles and lets me snuggle him for a minute. Like hearing about Mekinley's day at school. She gives great juicy details. Like listening to Sierra "sing" in her beautiful falsetto. Like watching the girls at their dance class. They both try so hard but are anything but graceful. Like giving Myles a bath--he loves it. Our best pictures are of him in the tub. Like blasting our favorite music and dancing ourselves silly. Like eating popcorn and snuggling while watching a "chick flick"--already--with Rob rolling his eyes. Like listening to them pray with such thoughtfulness, innocence, and meticulousness. Like Sierra smothering me in kisses. Like watching Rob with the kids. It gives me goosebumps (ladies you know what I'm talking about). They love him as much as he loves them. Like coming home to them after I've had a chance to miss them. Like watching them sleep....

Suddenly I felt at peace and yes, happy. And I finally saw some humor in the chocolate icing incident. Motherhood really is the most difficult thing I have ever done and will probably ever do. But it is also so worth it. So next time all of you mothers out there are having a hard time getting to sleep because of the craziness of your day, take it from me, take a deep breath, count to ten, and go watch your kids sleeping. (These are some of my favorite pics.)

First Day of School

Last week was a pretty tough week. Between Mekinley starting kindergarten and weening Myles, I was feeling like an unneeded mother whose babies were growing up too fast. After a few days of tears, however, the freedom kicked in--and now I'm doing great!

Mekinley loves school. She really was more than ready. Her teacher is Mrs. Kershaw. She comes home everyday and gives us a play-by-play of her entire day. She sounds like such a grown up and more and more like me everyday. Rob and I have to keep ourselves from laughing. It is so fun. She really has grown up over night. She did tell me the other day that school was kind of "boring and hard." When I asked her why she said it was because she has to keep her "eyes on teacher the whole time!", which is one of the classroom rules. Mekinley is so literal and so ready to please that I can just picture her in class sitting straight in her chair with her eyes glued on her teacher, not even blinking let alone looking away. I tried to explain to her that it would be okay if she needed to look down for a minute, but Mekinley couldn't be convinced. How cute!

Sierra also started her preschool last week. She calls it "Houseschool Musical." She always comes home with so much "homework"! Well, once again it's been lots of fun at our place.

Blank Snowboards!

Blank Snowboards is open for business!! Finally!!
Check us out at www.blanksnowboards.com and spread the word.

Hiking in the Uintah's

Over Labor Day we went up to my parents' cabin in the Uintah's. It was beautiful! We went on one of our favorite hikes, and I'm proud to say that Mekinley and Sierra are born hikers. They do a great job with minimal whining (I know--surprising) and love it. I think Mekinley's favorite part was doing "Dirty Dancing" on the logs and Sierra's was when we got a little ahead of Rob and Mekinley we hid behind some rocks and when they came by we jumped out and scared them. What fun!