Aftyn's Preschool Time

This is why I started taking these pictures. Aftyn was coloring a color by letter picture, and kept wiggling her toes in a cute way. You can see a little of what her toes were doing on her right foot, which would be the one we see on the left.

Did you notice, she's a leftie? 

Silliness from our girls

Bronwyn started it by putting on a pair of Reed's socks she found while I was folding laundry

Aftyn had to join her when she saw how silly she looked.

Our 3rd Sunday of no church. We were a little stir-crazy to say the least. We were getting ready to go for a Sunday drive.

I love this coat from a family in our ward. Aftyn feels like a little lady in it, she curtsies and everything!

Mother of the Year Award

Oh, some days you just want to do a little better.

   Aftyn climbed out of our car today, while I was holding sticky Bronwyn away from me and was preoccupied by a strange truck parked near the entrance of our building with a person leaning into the truck talking with the passengers. Classis drug deal pose and so it made me uncomfortable to have to walk by with my kids.

Poor Aftyn and her muddled mother.

Aftyn had somehow entangled her feet in the "straps" of an empty plastic bag, hadn't noticed because she herself was distracted by the lovely lollipop in her hand, and had been walking through the parking lot to the entrance of the building when, not surprisingly, she totally tripped because of the plastic bag and worst of all to her, broke her lollipop all over the ground. Completely distraught, she began crying while I found us standing in front of said truck, only then becoming aware of what had happened with Aftyn and the bag and really wanting the safety of the inside of our building away from the inhabitants of the truck and the man leaning into it.

 I quickly managed to untangle Aftyn's boots and hugged her, but with our proximity to the truck, I just wanted out of there so I grabbed her hand and crossed our little "intersection" of roadway in front of our entrance, thankfully putting some distance between my girls and I and the dumb truck. Once I got us inside the door of our building, Aftyn took off running as she usually does for the elevator, completely unaware of the mother's complex that was rearing its ugly head inside of me. I felt SO bad that in that instance when she fell FLAT on her face on the pavement, I couldn't react with more genuine concern for her and her injuries.

Sometimes as moms, I guess we just have to give ourselves a break. We really are just doing the best we can do. I can't wait to be able to LOOK BACK at our time in this neighborhood. And laugh. And be glad we made it through safely.

Feelings, nothing more than feelings.

Sunday nights are all mine. With kids exhausted from a busy day and a husband tired from early meetings, I tend to come alive at night all alone. I generally update the blog. I have so much time for my own thoughts on Sunday nights. I have lots of time for deep introspection, re-dedication, longings and sadness, but mostly feelings of what is most important to me, who I really am and trying to figure out how I can be more true to those feelings.

One of my sisters once said the best time for her to clean her house was at night when all her kids were asleep.  I can completely understand that. Staying up late on Sunday nights leads to the kind of clarity that can be hard for me to find at other times. Maybe because my husband is safe in bed?  More than likely.

Sunday Night

Sunday. A day when we wake up early, get ready and go to church, come home and eat and enjoy a lazy lazy day together. Sometimes playing games. Sometimes reading books. Always spending time together.

My girls love to look at pictures of themselves on Sundays. Old pictures of our old life. Old pictures of our new life. Pictures of family. Pictures of friends. We go back to our roots and remember who we were and are. What matters most.

Tonight while looking at pictures, Reed said to me, "What are we doing here?", in a quiet thoughtful way that I knew meant he was mourning our old life just a little. It's easy to forget, in those moments of moving forward, how hard life used to be even in our old life as compared to life now. I said to him, because I know it's true, "Just you wait, Reed, we will look back in a little while at pictures of our life now and we will feel the same feelings of longing and happiness for that life."

And I know that is true.

Just No Words . . . . . .Not Really

Lucky boy with his Valentines Day present

Two happy girls with new fun lily pad plates and bowls!

I even made myself some strawberry hearts for my oatmeal. Awww.

And to cap off a fun day, Aftyn's friend came over for a little while to play!

                                         

 Aftyn's friend even made her a Valentine and brought us all Reese's hearts. Yum!!

Aftyn and Bronwyn got Valentines from Aftyn's other friend at her preschool storytime this

morning at the public library. They were spoiled!! We sure have a lot of love here.

And we're grateful for it.

Stay Tuned . . . Valentines Day Post is A-Comin'!

Are you feeling the love?

Lots and lots of pictures of the girls because my media card reader is working again

Aftyn, looking very much like Inigo Montoya. You kill my father. Prepare to die. :)

It was cold one day. So I bundled the girls up

and let them watch a movie together.

Cute close-ups

Bubble bath!

Going to go out and play in what Nemo left us!

We decided to have a special toast to Bronwyn's potty training graduation one Sunday.

I was impressed with how well Aftyn and Bronwyn drank out of these (plastic) champagne glasses.

They loved the sparkling white grape juice and the fun little celebration.

Cheese!