Category Archives: Winter

New Year’s and Nerf Guns

“And thank you that we could stay in Utah longer than seven days, and please bless the twins that they will grow healthy and strong, and bless all the people of the world and bless Daddy’s eye and mommy’s lip that they will get better…” (Ava’s bedtime prayer tonight)

We drove home from our trip to Utah today. We pulled up to snow drifts up to our waist, a walkway shoveled by our kind neighbor, and a warm house that didn’t stink (no hidden diapers or smeltering garbages! 🙌) Jake hauled everything in from the car while Ava and I started unpacking inside. We cooked up some food from the freezer, snacked on Christmas truffles, and unwrapped the package of 200 nerf bullets that Jake ordered from China over a month ago (we just got the package.) And since we realized after ordering that they wouldn’t arrive by Christmas, Jake ordered another 200 from Amazon so we could all play with the four nerf guns we got on Christmas morning. 😂
So, we piled the new 200 with the other 200, strapped on whatever glasses we could find, piled up the suitcases and laundry baskets, and teamed up to shoot at each other.

I soon learned that those little foam bullets pack a punch!! I told Jake we should’ve just gotten those little guns that shoot soft, colorful rings but we settled on these eye poking, lip numbing, red mark-making foam bullets and had so much fun regardless. (After Hyrum shot Jake in the eye and he lost his peripheral vision for a while [somehow it got him WITH his glasses on] we decided shooting targets at the laundry basket would be a better way to end the night. 😬👍) It’s good to be home.

Cheers to a happy new year!
#mamanotes #welcome2017

Update: I ordered safety goggles! It was funny because when I was browsing on Amazon for some, many of the items in the “frequently bought with” section were nerf guns and nerf ammo. Haha! Why didn’t I see any safety goggles on there when we ordered our nerf guns!?

Well, we have them now. 🙂

The kids really like them, except Hyrum’s pinch his cheeks in half and cover over half his face so he doesn’t like to keep them on long. Totally ok, I don’t last long in nerf gun battles anyway.

Christmas in Utah

Why I wear my hair up all the time ^^ haha

At the Provo LDS Temple–one of the most beautiful I’ve been to!

We spent the week between Christmas and New Year’s in Utah! It was so nice to be with family (although so hard to figure out how to split our time between both of them!) I won’t overload this post with pictures, but I will say that we sure packed in our time there—lots of dinners, visiting, movies, games (you know that hungry hippos game you’ve probably seen circling pinterest–the one where you actually roll people across the floor to gather balls in a basket? We did that! Well I didn’t with my pregnant belly– but it was so fun to watch!), shopping, lunches, skiing, relaxing, EATING (so. much. food!), going to the temple–even a family wedding! and staying up way too late. I even got to visit with one of my dearest friends that I hadn’t seen in so long. It was as though things never changed–grateful for friendships like that. We had a great trip!

Talking about the funky hair-do’s we had as kids. Poor Mom got a lot of flack for those bangs!

Also, Christmas was so fun this year with the kids–they were both so happy and excited. At the end of the day Ava said to us, “This was the best Christmas ever!” and made sure to thank us with big hugs. How did we get so lucky?  I was also excited to finally empty all those boxes that I’d been stuffing in the front closet all this time. I couldn’t wait to give them their gifts!

 

You can fly

The other day I put Disney songs on Pandora for the kids to dance to and the “You Can Fly” song came on.  They’d never seen the movie so I told them what it was about and they spread their arms, racing around the room (and jumping off the couches.) Ever since, Ava has wanted to see what it was all about.  So, the other night we all went downstairs and watched Peter Pan.

When I brought down popcorn, the kids were so excited.  It’s funny how they can get excited about the smallest things.  They both squealed, “Popcorn! Yay! Popcorn!” Hyrum giggled and “hmmed” with the most satisfying grins while he stared at the popcorn and crammed handfuls into his mouth. Later he picked out orange after orange to have us peel for him (eating all of them in no time). When we told him no more, he went off and peeled them himself.

We turned on the kids’ Christmas tree and tucked them in bed, hoping they would settle and fall asleep in the same room (totally hit and miss with this).  In her bedtime prayer, Ava   mentioned, “…and please bless Hyrum that he can fall asleep and not refuse his naps, and please help him to not refuse new food, and please bless me to try new foods…and thank you for our warm house and helping us drive safely…”   I just love her prayers.

Later when Hyrum got out of bed (for the fifth time) and came downstairs, he picked up two little oranges and held them right up to his nose, just smiling at them. Jake and I just laugh, it is so fun watching them.

#mamanotes

Crumbly

I’ve been feeling kind of crumbly lately. Crumbling with all kinds of fatigue and emotions because I just don’t have the energy to do it all. This pregnancy has been hard. It’s been especially apparent the last few days, at least the overwhelming negative thoughts at times. All I really feel like doing is curling up on the couch or sleeping. The messes pile up around the house, making me want to retreat further. I push through it a lot of the time because my children need feeding, the house needs mending, and I really do want to do good and feel good. I have bundles of moments of laughter or peace, playing with my children or watching their quirks and their goodness. But oh these emotions have gotten the best of me lately, especially when Jake comes home and I can let them free. I can wallow and retreat because he’s home to take care of things.

It’s been interesting though, when I feel such a pull to give in to these negative feelings, such a real desire to sink and wallow in them, I also feel a gentle tugging from another side, a much kinder side. These kind, gentle tugs remind me that I do not belong down there in that negativity, where I am very much under the influence of another, a much less kind other. I am pulled up just enough to hover over that pit, but not to sink down. I know I have real emotions here (I have some powerful pregnancy hormones at play), but it’s still hard to pull myself out sometimes. I’m grateful for the gentle tugging, whether from the Holy Ghost or some heavenly loved one whispering to my heart. So from here, where? How do I overcome?

I came home from church today with the kids while Jake stayed to have some meetings. I carried sleeping Hyrum up to his bed, chatted and giggled with Ava over pizza, and then curled up on the couch to sleep while Ava sat at my feet playing games on my phone. Jake came home and he and Ava went downstairs and watched some videos. Hyrum joined them, so I pulled a church magazine from the bin next to the couch and picked a few things to read that I thought might be helpful, because I really wanted help.

It’s amazing how God works in just the right ways to reach us and let us know He cares. I read a few articles from that magazine that really lifted me and changed my perspective on some things.

So anyway, I’m just feeling especially grateful for inspiring words and comfort and help. Even though it’s been hard, I’m so grateful for this pregnancy. SO GRATEFUL for these babies. I’ll probably still do more crumbling, but I believe that with time He can build me back up–into something even better.

(my mantra lately)

Making Christmas in Our House

 

Ava waited all day to get out the Christmas tree and the Christmas decorations. We cleaned the house and waited for my hard drives to finish backing up before we could move the desk and computer for the Christmas tree.

Then Jake put on a coat and his super tall boots and trudged through a few feet of piled snow drifts to the garage to get the tree and all the fun Christmas stuff.

 We’ve been hibernating the past few days in our warm little townhouse while a true North Dakota storm has been piling snow and blowing it all around us. No school and work from home means a lot of together time and we really like that.

I’m supposed to drive to Bismarck tomorrow for an important ultrasound  that needs to be done no later than this week so we’ll see if we can make it out there. School is closed again tomorrow.

 We put up the Christmas tree, broke a few ornaments, and noticed that some chunks of lights weren’t working on the tree. So we decided to hold off on the ornaments and ribbon until we could get those working again, and tucked the kids into bed.

 Ava sat up in her bed marveling at the little Christmas tree we set up in her room, the same one I had in my room when I was young. Her bed time prayer went something like this:

 “Dear Heavenly Father,

Thank you for the Earth and for Christmas. Thank you that we could have Christmas and make Christmas in our house today. Thank you for our bodies and that we could have a nice home to keep us warm. Please bless Mommy and Daddy and Hyrum and the babies and help us have a good day tomorrow. . In the name of Jesus Christ Amen. “

 She fills my heart this little one.