Megiliboo

When I think of Valentine's Day I often think of romantic love, but since Graydon and I are having our 10 year anniversary soon I will be doing a post about him later (I apologize ahead of time if I get too mushy). Lately Graydon and I have been discussing how incredibly blessed we are, so today I thought I would write an "I love you" to Megan, or as she is affectionately called in our house Megiliboo. Megan is a little girl with a teenager screaming to get out. Today she pranced out of her room with her dress up shoes(high heels), a cute headband in her hair, and a purple glittery belt and told me she was pretending she was a teenager. (I would have pictures but I have somehow misplaced my camera, every bloggers nightmare). She is dancing around the room and singing to High School Musical 2. I love you Megan.

A few weeks ago I was giving her a hard time because she had messed up her hair that I had spent a decent amount of time getting "just right". So, I'm giving her a hard time and she turns to me and says, "Mom, this is who I am, this is how I roll." I love you Megan.

Megan can be a stinker and she can definitely throw a fit when she doesn't get her way, but how can I be mad for too long when she looks at me and says, "Mommy, your the bestest mommy in the world." I love you Megan.

She loves to be tickled and I love to watch Graydon playing "tickle monster" with her because her laugh is something that I hope that I never forget, it is infectious. I love you Megan.

To my sweet girl, I am so glad to be your mom and I can't wait to see what kind of woman you will grow up to be. Every day is an adventure with you, I hope I don't miss a minute of it.

Bubba

While we were walking to school this morning Tyler looked at me with a big grin on his face and said, "I am the man of the house while Dad is out of town!" He was so excited and proud of the fact that he could be the man of the house. I love you Tyler.

He is so excited that he is in senior primary in church. He loves to make me proud by answering the questions right. He says that he is my playmaker(anyone who has seen High School Musical will understand that reference). I love you Tyler.

Once a month we have what is called fast Sunday, we fast for two meals and pray and focus on areas of our lives that we may need a little extra guidance in, or we fast for someone else's sake. One Sunday as we were coming home from church Tyler said, "Is it fast Sunday today or slow Sunday?" I love you Tyler.

Tyler can be a challenge for me. Because our personalities are so similar we often butt heads. But I can't imagine my life without him and I don't even want to imagine it without him. His heart is so big and he wears it on his sleeve. He is loving and silly and kind and quirky. He is a special kid who loves to make people laugh. He is very bright and often surprises me with the things that he picks up on and understands, he keeps us on our toes! I am greatful everyday for the little man he is becoming and I can't wait for our next challenge together. I love you Bubba!

Having Friends Over

Right now I am hiding:) Tyler has a friend over and the chaos just gets to me after awhile. I grew up in a house with two kids(both of them girls) and a mom. Not a whole lot of chaos going on(except when we were teenagers and screaming at each other). I know it is good for my kids to be able to come over and I like being able to keep an eye on them, especially with certain kids, but I go a little nuts over time. I think that I need to read my previous post and get in that frame of mind again:) So, because I grew up in such a small family with no boys and not a lot of noise I am still trying to learn how to deal with the constant motion and loud volume. I know quite a few of you grew up in big families, how do you cope? I guess for now I will go plunge into a good book and tune out the noise. By the way, I really appreciate all of your great blogs, they make me smile.

Today

I have been thinking about how I view my life lately. I am very critical of myself and sometimes that causes me sorrow. In reality I have a wonderful life, a husband who loves me and I love dearly, great kids, a wonderful family, a home I love, friends that would be there for me no matter what, and the gospel of Jesus Christ. My birthday was last week and I promised myself that I would not dwell on the things that I haven't accomplished yet, but focus on the the things that matter. Graydon took the day off of work(because he is a smart man) and I savored being able to sleep in, being able to go to the movies and hold hands with the man that I love, having kids that were so excited because it was my birthday, and just enjoying the peace of the day. In church on Sunday one of the speakers was talking about how we view tomorrow. He said we should stop looking forward to tomorrow because it will be better, or we will have more money, or we will weigh less, but to be happy today. That is something that I will be trying to focus on this year. Thank you to all of my wonderful friends who are such a great example of service and love, to my husband who is a great example of forgiveness and compassion, and to my kids who are a great example of taking pleasure in the small things. Here is to a great today!

Our Family Pictures

When I started this blog I realized that we don't have very many family pictures. Mostly that is because I am always waiting until I look better(sound familiar ladies). I realized that by worrying so much about how I looked that I was taking myself out of our family memories. I love to watch my kids go through our scrapbooks and laugh at the pictures and the memories. I don't want my kids to think that I was never there for all of our fun times. I guess that will be one of my New Year's resolutions, to get over myself and have fun. We decided to take family pictures this year and so we asked Ashlee Stone to take these pictures. She was so great and I loved how they turned out. Now we have to pick which picture we are going to enlarge for the wall. Any opinions?

Christmas with the Woods in Utah

This Christmas we were able to spend time with Graydon's family in Utah. All of his siblings were there and we had a great time. Graydon's brother Tyson and his wife Rachel graciously hosted all of us. It got crazy at times with all of those people but we had a great time and are grateful to Tyson and Rachel for letting us hang out at their house.

The kids play really well together, I don't think they had one argument the whole time. At one point during our visit they all decided to be ninjas. Graydon's sister Tara made masks for each of them because they had been tying black socks around their faces. They all looked so cute. I didn't get a picture of all of them but I did get Megan. She wore that mask everywhere until we got home. People probably thought she was an "interesting" kid.

Tyler's Art Contest

Last year when Tyler was in 1st grade his whole class must have enter some of their art into an art contest. Tyler's painting was one of the finalists for all of Boise School District. His art traveled with the other finalists and winners from school to school. We were pretty proud of him.