Budding Photographer and School Anxiety

Don't you love when you open your pictures and see your kids have gotten a hold of the camera? I remember Scott taking this picture of me but I didn't realize they had taken the other ones. My favorite pictures are the ones where you can see up Scott's nose and the one where he is posing for the camera. It takes real talent to capture those moments. My kids defintely aren't amatuers. But since Greg never takes pictures, I guess the only way to get pictures of me is to have my kids take them :)

Here are some pics of Scott's preschool gradutation. Two friends from out ward who have kids Scott's age took turns doing preschool at their house. They did so many fun, cute and of course educational activities with the kids, and of course Scott loved it! It is fun to see hime grow up and I am amazed at how much he has already changed this summer!

He will start school in a couple of weeks (sob) and I have mixed feelings about it. He is so excited to go to school and I'm excited for him! But in Texas they have full day kindergarten, so he will leave our house (on a bus) around 7:15 and come home about 3:08. Doesn't that seem like a long day for a 5 year old? The other moms I have talked to said the kids come home exhausted for the first month or so and then they get used to it. I think it just makes me realize that he isn't mine, he is going to have his own life. I'm not getting dramatic, like he's leaving me soon or anything, it just makes me realize that I don't have complete control over his development anymore, I'm turning over the some of the control over to his teachers and peers! It's kindof scary!

Inspiration and Good Ideas

Ok, so I've been out of the blogging world awhile and probably no one will even read this, but after blogging tonight I realized I want to do it more. I don't know why it is so hard for me to sit down at the computer and actually blog. Maybe because I worry it need to be funny or entertaining, etc. But I really want to start bloggin because when I was looking at some blogs tonight I realized how cool it is to remember how you were feeling that day and remembering the little things that happen. I KNOW I will forget the little things, and I really do want remember those and how it felt to be a mom at what ever stage of kids I'm going through. So thanks to those of you who have cool blogs who inspired me to want to blog more. (We'll see if I actually do it :)

Good idea #1: Fingerpainting in the bathtub! I found these bath paints at Wal-Mart and they were a blast and I didn't have to stress out that the kids were getting paint all over, I just washed it off of the shower wall after. Daniel even got to paint!

Good Idea #2: For Scott's party we had a Star Wars themed party and I went to Party City where light saber blowups were $6.99 each x 16 kids = not worth it! So I found the idea online of cutting pool noodles in half ($2 per noodle = $1 per kid), and covering the bottom with duct tape! The kids loved them, and I felt great that I threw a successful kid birthday party (that stuff stresses me out, but I love the internet, once I looked online I felt alot better, there were so many cool ideas! Plus, if you'll notice, Daniel is in his diaper in all the pictures. Seriously, what mom doesn't dress her kid for a party? A mom who has to put all of her mental energy into planning a party. The funny thing is that I do not get stressed out planning parties for adults, just kids.) So here are some pics of Scott's 5th birthday party!

Ok, so as I am posting this, I can't get my pictures to move down in the blog, so I just left them at the top. What's the deal? Does anyone else have a hard time dragging the pictures down? I'm just gonna leave them at the top for now, if any one else knows any blogging secrets, please share!

Ok, now for Scott! I love that kid so much! I really enjoy babies and toddlers, but I love also that Scott is older that we can have converstaions together and enjoy sports, coloring and watching him learn new things. He is a very sweet, loving boy and loves to spend time with the family. He makes me laugh and loves music and dancing. We have so much fun with him. He loves all sports and I worry he is going to have a hard time deciding which ones to play when he gets older. His first three words were mama, dada and football if that gives you any indication of how much he loves sports. I am so grateful for him! I would post a picture of him if I thought I could drag it down!

Look at me, I'm Sandra Dee

That really has nothing to do with the post, but my aunt (I think it's from a movie, Barbara Streisand?) always says that when she has done something wonderful, and I thought that since I am blogging twice this week it was fitting. I made a promise to my friend Andrea that I would blog more, and I always keep my promises (or at least TRY to). So what is this blog about (drumroll, please)?

DisneyWorld!!!

We went to DisneyWorld a couple of weeks ago and I ACTUALLY took pictures. Here are some of the highlights . . .

We DROVE!! Can you believe it? Everyone thought we were crazy, but it really wasn't too bad! The kids watched movies and played with the fun trip stuff our friend Kelly got for them, and slept. The worst part of driving was the first night when Greg wanted to drive until 2 am and Daniel was screaming because he was so tired and wouldn't go to sleep. We finally stopped at about midnight and crashed! But it worked out fine because we only had about 5 hours to drive the next day. It's about 16 to 17 hours from where we live to Orlando.

Heres' ALL of our pictures with the characters. We didn't really see that many out an about. You had to wait in line to see most of them, so we waited in line once for the princesses for about 30 minutes, and we were done with that. I don't know if they do it differently at Disneyland, but we saw alot more characters out and about. Scott was sad to he didn't see Buzz Lightyear, he loved him at Disneyland. One fun thing that happened was that Stacey was Boo in the Monsters, Inc. show. What do you think, does she look like Boo?

I love the picture of Scott with the CARS characters because there is another boy in the picture because you had to wait in line 30 minutes to take pictures with them too! So I just had Scott go stand over by the cars, I'm sure the experience was just as meaniful . . .

Above is some pictures of some of the rides and petting the animals at Animal Kingdom.

So what does a one year old who can't walk, do at DisneyWorld?

These were the highlights of Daniels trip. Playing with the 3-D glasses at the shows, sitting in the stroller, getting grabbed, poked, and loved by Stacey when she sat behind him in the stroller. And grabbing Dad's hair while he sat on his shoulders when we had to park the stroller to wait in line for a show. Overall, he was a pretty good sport.

I titled this picture ANNOYED because this was the moment that Greg decided he had ENOUGH of DisneyWorld. We were at Epcot, and he wasn't too impressed with the park in general. We had a five day pass, so we had done Disney for 5 days strait so the overload was understandable. Needless to say, we all had a really fun exhausting time. I was grateful to have some time with just my little cute family. I really even had fun spending time talking with Greg in the car! It's just good to get away from all the distractions of everyday life and just chill with the fam!

Making things way worse . . .

Ok, this is a random post, but I have been looking at other peoples blogs and I haven't posted in a really long time (ok, so that's an understatement), but I thought I shoud just post some random thought, since I get to overwhelmed with putting the pictures on (I'm a simple gal, ya know)

Ok, so I'm not a huge worrier, but I do worry sometimes. And when I worry, I tend to turn a ant hill into a mountain (is that how the saying goes?). Here's a couple of examples:

When I flew home from Utah with my kids on Sat. Our flight LEFT at 6:00 a.m. which means we had to leave the house by 4:00 or so. Trust me, I was not excited to first of all get my self up and then my three kids up and then sit with them on a plane for 3 hours plus airport time WITHOUT my husband. Plus, I started feeling sick the night before, so I was really thinking that I needed to get some rest so that I didn't fall apart the next day. So I went to bed about 11,to at least get about 5 hours. But guess what happened, I was so stressed out about getting some sleep that I COULD NOT sleep. It was driving me crazy! I would try and do yoga relaxation techniques to calm my mind, but then I would think of how bad the day would be so then I would get more worked up and not sleep! So basically what happened is I didn't sleep AT ALL, I got up and showered (I have to shower!) and got everyone else up and ended up sleeping for 45 minutes on the plane when we took off because all my kids fell asleep for a little bit.

The moral of this story is although I did feel like a zombie the whole next day (I did take a 2 hours nap in the afternoon), I didn't die. Believe me, the way I was stressing the night before, you would've thought that no sleep would kill me, but it didn't! So why did I waste my WHOLE night stressing about it?

The other thing I tend to stress about is my kids sleep. I feel like if they don't get enought sleep they are going to be terrible the next day, drive me crazy, blah, blah, blah. And sometime that does happen, but sometimes they SURPRISE me and act totally fine all day!

Is there anyone else out there like this? If, not then just give me the number of a good couselor.

One reason why I am asking is because Greg always says, Well if you can't sleep you must not be tired enough. But I swear that I get really tired, but if I stay up too long, I get more wired and can't fall asleep. I ALWAYS pay for it the next day! But I've never been the type of person who could fall asleep during a movie or with the lights on reading, I have to be in my bed with the lights off in my pajamas with my face washed. Is that just weird, or am I really not tired enough?

By the way, it's nice to see you all again :)

Negative Nancy . . . Be Gone!!!

Ok, I am feeling better, thanks to everyone who commented on my last blog, I really did just need a swift kick in the butt to get me going. So now I thought I would write a more positive post about all the things I love in my life right now . . .

1. I am more in love with my husband than I ever have been. Being married was such a big adjustment for me, and there were hard times. But I love looking back at our marraige and seeing all the joys and trials we have been through and seeing how close they have bonded us. It really does just keep getting better . . .

2. Seeing Scott learn so many new things and talking about his memories. I feel so amazed at the mind of a child, how they pick up things so fast and then they remember them. I feel so excited when he has friends come to play, because I remember how much fun I had playing with friends when I was younger. I love when he will remind me of fun times we had together, and I have so much joy in realizing he has so many happy memories of time he has spent with me and our family.

3. Bonding with Stacey. Stacey is so stubborn and she does things on her own time, you cannot force this child to do anything!! But it makes it that much sweeter when she wants to be close to you, because you know it's what she wants to do. I love going placer with her and spending time with just her. I feel like since she is the middle child she sometimes gets lost in the mix, so I love being able to sit and talk with her. She is quite the conversationalist.

4. Loving on Daniel. To say this kid is happy is a huge understatement. He always laughs and smiles at me, which makes me feel like I am his most favorite person in the world. I want to kiss and hold him all day, and I sometimes want to wake him up at night to play with him after he's gone to sleep (I seriously d0!).

5. Where we live. I absolutely love our house, I love our neighborhood, I love our ward, I love my friends here. Seriously, I have never felt so much at home as I feel here. I miss family and friends in Utah of course. But I KNOW I belong here. I have been so blessed by the people I know here, I really do have "family" in Texas.

6. The gospel. I feel like I know my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ so much better than I have for most of my life. I feel so much inspiration in my life, that comes from the Holy Ghost. I honestly don't know what I would so without it. I couldn't function.

7. Honesty. I feel like I have more honesty in my life than I have before. I feel like I can be honest with myself, it's ok for me to have strength and weaknesses. I don't feel like I have to be perfect or that relationships have to be perfect. Sometimes people fight, we get upset, hurt people's feelings and that's ok, nobody's perfect. We are all working together. For most of my life, I've been a people pleaser, but now I feel like I can be myself and tell people the truth (and not what they want to hear), and it's refreshing. At least I can be honest with myself and others and I feel free.

There are SOOO many more, I was gonna write about my family and Greg
s family, but there are too many amazing people to start on at 1:00 in the morning. That's a blog for another day . . .

Gone, Gone, Gone!

Gone like a freight train, gone like yesterday, gone like (I can't remember the rest).

Yes, I have been gone from the blogging world for awhile. The main reason is because I had SO MANY fun people come visit me in October and Greg is out of town.

Basically, this is a venting blog (just a disclaimer). Not because I am jealous of anyone, the people I am mentioning in my blog I admire, but I just wonder how they do it. I feel like I never have time to blog, never have time to read, my house is never clean, I don't play with my kids enough, I don't bathe them everyday, I get mad at my kids, I'm not organized (that's an understatement, I am the complete opposite of organize, I basically feel like I live on the verge of chaos), I don't work out as much as I should, I don't get enough sleep, I don't make anything crafty or scrapbook (I can sew, I just don't feel like I have time to), don't read my scriptures enough, I can never remember to say my morning prayers, etc. Sometimes I just feel like I am one of those frogs in the boiling water and I am just swimming and swimming and barely keeping my head above the water.

And then I read other people's blogs and these are all the cool things they do: read at least 3 books a week, have triplets, run marathons and half marathons, have special needs kids that they are amazing with, shoot music videos, write books, teach parenting classes, scrapbook, sew, make crafts, cook yummy (and healthy) dinners every night, have all there kids do chores everyday, and so on. And alot of these people are moms who have just as many (or more) kids as I do, are wonderful moms who always do fun stuff with their kids, and some of them have part-time and full time jobs (really easy jobs like, school psychologist, nurse, medical transcriptionist, nurse, etc.)! And all I'm wondering of all you wonderful people out there who do all these cool things, is honestly, how do you have time? I love the people who do these things and admire them and want to be more like them for all the things they accomplish, but where would I find the time?

So this is an honest question to all of you out there doing all these "cool" things, is there some secret way for me to manage my time better? Please share it with me, I need help! I really didn't post this blog for everyone to write things like "oh Christy, you do so much, you're so amazing!" I really do want help!!

ALso, I screwed up my blog! How did I do that? I am also not very good at blogging! Can someone tell me how to fix it?

Sorry, I don't mean for this to be a negative post. I love my life, I have such a wonderful family and such amazing friends, I am truly blessed way beyond anything I deserve.

I just wish I wasn't so overwhelmed all the time . . .

Vacation over the Border

I just got back from a fun-filled exhausting vacation.

First, we went to Spokane for a very fun, well-planned reunion. Unfortunately, I got sick (strepth throat) and didn't take any pictures. If you are just dying to see how much fun we had you can click here http://www.everydayromneys.blogspot.com/. It was at the Daines lake cabin at Hayden Lake. I seriously have the best in-laws! We all get along so well, and I WISH I lived closer to ALL of them!!

Next, we headed to Canada with just our family to see Vancouver. We stayed at the Sutton Place, a five star hotel at a 3 star price, thanks to hotels.com, thank you Greg! When we told our trolley driver where we were staying, he asked me if I was famous. That's seriously how nice this place was folks. Everyone looked at us like we were crazy we dragged our three snack covered, messy haired, homeless looking kids (we'd been in the car for 5 hours) to check-in to the hotel. It was I'm sure one of Greg's all-time favorite moments of our lives. Seriously, he loves to look ghetto in nice places. It's a weird quirk he has.

Here's a view from the hotel.

Ok, I have to admit, I don't usually take the shampoo and all the stuff from the hotels, but this seriously was nice stuff!! I could've stayed in this hotel all week!

In Vancouver, we rode the trolley around, played at Stanley park, and ate yummy crepes. Daniel fell asleep on the trolley and played with a straw the rest of the day(I know am not good at taking pictures, I'm working on it. Just don't read my blog for the pictures, just read it for the captivating story-telling). Then we had to leave that night to go on a ferry to Victoria.

We checked-in to our hotel at midnight in Victoria. So our kids were passed out until 11:00 the next day. In Victoria, we rode the trolley around (Greg likes taking the tour trolleys), fed a seal (the highlight of our day), and went on a whale watching tour. We also went to Buchart gardens, which is beautiful, but it was at night and my phone (I forgot my camera on the trip, does that surprise anyone?) doesn't have a flash so I couldn't take pictures. I'm sure they have a great web site, with better pictures than I could take anyways!

Next, it was on to Seattle, where we met my parents, my uncle and his family, and my brother and some of his friends for the BYU vs. Washington game. It was a really fun game to be at and I even took all my kids!! I don't know why I don't have any pictures of this! We had so much fun!! I think my dad took some pictures, when I get them from him, I'll post them later. So long blogging world . . .