Mondays

Mondays have become a wonderful thing. We used to not be great about doing our weekly Family Home Evenings.We have always seen the value in meeting as a family every week and teaching each other good, virtuous principles but we just didn't prioritize it. Someone would run into the room for 5 min look up a random spiritual thought and then come out and teach or we would just watch a movie make some kind of treat and call it good. But this year we are really trying. At first I made this intense chart that included lessons for Isabella and then a separate one for us but that was ridiculous so we are just doing the Bella ones. Best decision ever! Isabella just gets that we are doing some kind of family thing. She just sits there and listens and nods and follows instructions.

Last night was my favorite one so far. As we told her the story of Noah and the Ark we put together this little picture (I had created the characters and props in advanced so all she did was help act out the scenes and then glued them on) I was worried it would be too old for her but she was sooo into it. She laughed and played along, took her glueing job so seriously and knew who Noah was and of course all the animals. She would grab the little people and move them around as we told her the story it was just too cute. I don't mean to brag, but didn't those little people turn out cool?! The yarn hair gives them a je ne sais quoi (sorry i watched Little Rascals with Isabella today and I've been dying to use that...)

Doing this stuff makes a difference. I have felt a special kind of spirit during our little 10 minute family nights. Something about singing hymns together, seeing her fold her little arms as we pray and teaching Isabella simple principles is so powerful. I can see her little eyes soaking in everything we are saying and understanding, really understanding!  My heart is filled with joy as I teach Isabella that she is a child of God with a Heavenly Father who loves her and that she has the potential to be anything she dreams.

"You is kind. You is smart. You is important."

Sunday

Today was one of those days. During sacrament Isa would not stay still. Between taking stuff out of the lady's purse in front of us and trying to touch the people behind us while we prayed, we were done. After rock paper scissors Stephen lost so he took her out. Then came back and after a repeat of the above, I took her to the bathroom cause I really needed to go, and ended up chasing her down with my skirt at my ankles praying no on would come in as she pulled all the toilet paper out and ran through the stalls. Nursery could not have come sooner.

We got home and after budgeting for a while and calculating student loans for graduate school I was so depressed I just laid down and tried not to think of anything. Well we all woke up a little happier and I decided to give Stephen some alone time which he rarely gets. Everything was going great. We played house and gave all our stuffed animals tea, gave each other foot massages, played the drum and the piano and I finally felt like I had done something right today. Until I decided we were going to paint our nails. I painted Isa's she painted mine and we had a blast, until I decided how cute a picture would be of our nails together and in the second I turned around Isabella grabbed the bottle of nail polish and poured it ALL over the carpet. I scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed so now if you squint and stand faraway, you can't see it.

Enough said. It was a rough day. As I rocked Isabella to sleep and looked at her beautiful, perfect face and wondered why in the world I got to be her mother, the words of this hymn came to mind:

I need Thee every hour, most gracious Lord

No tender voice like Thine can peace afford

I need Thee every hour, stay Thou nearby

Temptations lose their power

When Thou art nigh

I need Thee, oh, I need Thee

Every hour I need Thee

Oh, bless me now, my Savior, I come to Thee

Tears rolled down my face as I sang to Isabella. I rocked her a little longer tonight, I needed that indescribable comfort holding her asleep in my arms brings. Oh truly how I need Him every hour lately. I have felt His arms around me so much lately helping me, holding me up, guiding me. It will all be okay, thanks to Him, it will all be okay. 

Catching Up

Am I the only person who can't for the love of me ever catch up with laundry? How can three people, one of them a very little one, accumulate so much laundry? Well in between laundry loads, church callings, new friendships, exploring, and adapting to/loving Isa's new quirks, I have not wanted to blog. I have plenty of free time to do it, I just choose to either watch Call the Midwife, nap, read or catch up on some of my goals during it. So here I am trying a month later to summarize a whole lot and yet not so much. Life has been well quite awesome yet not so blog interesting awesome. You know stuff like snuggling in a blanket together to watch a snowstorm in your back porch and looking at Isabella's smile that is so big it almost can't fit in her face, hanging out in Isabella's fort as we watch a movie and I think of how blessed I truly am to have these two or slowly starting to know people at church and faces becoming more familiar. Stuff that means so much to me but hard to capture in writing.

Here are some of my favorite recent Isabella moments:

Numero Uno-We were trying to get ready for church in 5 min because like always we woke up late. Well I woke up late, Stephen just always gets ready 5 min before we have to go since he is a guy. Isabella is eating breakfast and all of a sudden we hear her scream hysterically. We rush out expecting to find her choking or bleeding but what we find is a tiny drop of chocolate milk on her wrist that she is screaming at us to wipe off. Someone is becoming quite dramatic let me tell you.

Numero dos-In the car today I gave Isabella my phone to play with while we drove home. As we park in the garage we get into this conversation about lame doctor jokes and forget about Bells. All of a sudden we hear "Bye bye" and we look back and she is talking into the phone and finally is saying bye bye to whoever is on the other end. This might be a you had to be there kind of moment but to me it just shows how much my baby is not a baby anymore.

Numero tres-anytime anyone farts, Isabella will lift up her little leg and make fart noises and laugh hysterically. No need to say more.

Living in our little town far away sometimes feels wonderful and sometimes not so much. As I drive down the dirt roads with beautiful country homes overlooking the lakes surrounded by trees, I can just picture my children going down those roads in their bicycles as Stephen chases them down and I fall in love with West Plains even more. But sometimes I wake up with the realization of how alone we are out here and how much that kind of sucks sometimes. We probably won't live here for the rest of our lives but if for any crazy reason we do, I think it would be magical in a very simple, old fashioned kind of way.

Some of this pictures really make me smile. There are so many stories behind them and they just remind me of what an amazing little girl I get to raise and what a blessing parenthood really is. At nights I lay down after a day of running around, bending down, and picking up. My whole body aches--I definitely do not feel 22 more like 42. But then in the middle of all the aches and pains I smile and remember all the little moments Isabella and I had that day and all of the sudden the aches and pains hurt a little less.

I have a golden ticket!

I have been trying to take better pictures with my smartphone and I think I am getting

better. Wiping the lens once in a while does miracles! I cleaned of a piece of cheerio of 

it and my pictures are no longer blurry....

*Isabella made this for grandma and grandpa in Seattle and it meant so much to them

*Isa doesn't have many friends around here,so her playdate with Oscar was so good for her. She spent an hour showing him all her stuff. Someone needs to be a big sister soon!

*It was a little too windy for Isabella, but Stephen and I fell in love with kayaking. Summer activity 

for sure

*Little mama stage is my favorite. I hope this never goes away. 

               
  *This picture is heart melting for me in so many ways. My grandma made that hat for
    Bells. The first time I saw it I kind of laughed and thought it looked like an afro/clown hat but
    now I'm kind of in love with its quirkiness. The sun rays + her smile in this pic are too much.