Our Nap Time

Living in a tiny apartment we've had to do some things a little differently than most people. Take nap time for example. We only have two bedrooms, and since the kids would play with each other, it goes like this...

Sydney sleeps in the kids room...

David sleeps on the couch in the living room/kitchen...

and Parker sleeps in his bassinet in our room.

Because of this I am forced to be extremely quiet the whole time, tip toeing everywhere, typing lightly on the computer key board. My options are play/work on the computer, read, or nap. I usually go with the first two just because I'm weird and think sleeping is a waste of time. I really wish we could put Parker in the kids room-we even have the crib still set up and empty-but the kids know how to climb into it and I wouldn't feel comfortable unless I had a monitor where I could see them or something. I just know they would climb in, jump all over him, lay on top of him, and stuff things down his throat(Sydney already did this once-yeah, terrifying). So, I guess until we move this is how it's going to be. It's ok though really, maybe because I don't know any different. I'm just grateful that we've been able to afford to have our own place at all the last few years.

Swinging for the First Time

About a week and a half ago Parker went swinging for the first time. We had a baby swing but we got rid of it because we never used it. So it really was his first time ever. He's still a little small for it so I stuffed some blankets around him and pushed him very slow. He liked it but mostly he was fascinated by the side of the swing!

Pictures for my brother and sister in law

A little over a week ago I took these pictures for Russ and Hilary. We were at a family dinner at my other bro and sis in laws house and we were just going to do pictures around their yard, until Heidi told us their neighbors were really nice and wouldn't mind if we took pictures around their property. They had huge stacks of hay bales, an old barn, and some grain silos. It was so much fun to take pictures there!

 

Bountiful Baskets

Has anyone heard of this? I feel I have to share it because it's just so great! I found out about a month ago and just barely remembered to do it. Go to this website. It is 100% volunteer run and so you get super cheap produce! It also comes from as local as possible and from smaller farmers. Awesome! You can get this basket I got for 15$ or you can go organic for 25$. Every week the produce changes so you don't know exactly what you're getting(it's always this large amount), but I kinda like that! This week the basket had:

2 coconuts

2 larger cucumbers

2 summer squash

3 avocado

2 large oranges

6 bananas

11 tomatos

2 bags baby carrots

romaine lettuce

bag of apples

bag of small peaches

1 small thing of black berries

Good deal? I'd say so! However, it's only in these states; WA, ID, AZ, UT, WY, TX, NV. If you live here check it out! Most states seem to have a lot of pick up locations so you probably have one close to you! Ordering is done online at the beginning of the week and then you pick up Saturday. Happy shopping!

PS. I've heard about Terra Organics too. No idea any details, but if BB doesn't work for you maybe this one will. =)

Just Chillin'

haha, this one cracks me up!

Scott looks mad but he was just watching the news! lol

David Singing

David learned this song in Primary and I had to get a video. It was just too cute! If you can't understand what he's saying, or don't know the song it goes like this:

"I love sister she loves me, we love brother yesiree, he loves us and so you see, we are a happy family!

I love mother she loves me, we love Daddy yesiree, he loves us and so you see, we are a happy family!"

David is combining the verses into one.

A German Meal

Scott and his brother Russ served their missions in Germany and since Russ is moving soon we decided to have them make us a German dinner while we're all still together. We had Hungarian Goulash, Knodel, Spaetzle, Rot Kohl, Brats and some bread, salad, and Americanized German Chocolate cake. It was really fun and the food was really good! The kids ate it amazingly well too which is always a plus. Thanks guys!

Parker at 4 Months

On the 8th Parker turned 4 months old. I can't believe how fast the time has gone!

At his check up he was 14.5 pounds (40%) and 25.5 in. long (71%).
I am reminded again why 4 months is my FAVORITE baby stage. They are still small enough, still very much a baby, but they respond to you, they hold their head up great and so are more stable, they can entertain themselves with toys, they coo and make the funniest cutest noises...yes, I love this stage! I wish they would stay 4 months for like two or three months and then keep growing again cause it doesn't last long enough! I love snuggling and kissing his cheeks and making him laugh.
So besides the above mentioned here are some things Parker is doing:
He loves sitting more upright in the stroller and looking around. It might be his new favorite thing!
He loves that other baby in the mirror.
He is ticklish
He is extremely wiggly as all our babies have been.
He loves looking and grabbing books as we read them to him.
He is getting better and better at supporting his weight when we hold him standing in our laps.
And... that's all I can think of right now. He sure is a cutie! We are just so grateful to have him.

Family Picnic

For those of you thinking right now that I post about the most boring and mundane things- I mostly do this blog for family to see us while we are so far away.

These ducks are so accustomed to people that they came within a foot of us to get our crust. Crazy ducks! Sydney and I were the ones closest to them and we were afraid they were going to peck off our noses! haha No, but really, the female was like bending forward and staring at Sydney.

Look! Scott finally has his tractor! lol. He always jokes that when he's retired he wants to get a backhoe and spend his days going around our property diging holes.

I caught David in the air! And if you're wondering what Scott's doing, he's playing with Sydney.

Happy Mother's Day!

Yesterday I was just in such a good mood! I was just so happy to be the Mother of my children. I am so blessed!

Scott made me french toast with his homemade bread in the morning and he'd already given me these beautiful roses on Friday. He knows I love this color!

In Primary and Nursery David and Sydney made these necklaces for me. I admit I was very excited to wear them for the rest of the day.

We went to Rick and Heidi's house after church where we all ate dinner that the men had made for us! Rick actually had us sit down and served us like we were in a restaurant! So fun. Then later we went outside and enjoyed the end of a beautiful day that was just starting to cool off. It was great!

Here I am with my awesome sister in laws Heidi and Hilary.

Russ and Scott

Parker and his cousin Owen were quite interested in each other for a while.

Rick and Heidi

Hilary and I

Sydney had this stick...

and Owen wanted it. In the end they were both pretty upset! I guess we still need to learn how to be nice!

Heidi with the two youngest in the family.

Thanks!

I have to say thanks to all of you who left me some advice. It was great to hear different points of view to help me make my decision. And let me just clarify that free time really means free time. When the kids are awake I'm either taking care of them, playing with them, or doing chores. Every now and then I sit down to do a quick blog post like I am now. During nap time and after they go to bed for the night is when I have time to do other things.
So, I agree it's probably best to wait on the photography. Of course I'll never stop taking pictures of my kids. And my sister got me. She knew I really wanted to work on my book. And after spending some time thinking about it, reading your advice and talking to my wonderful hubby I've decided to do just that. On sunday's I'm going to try to learn how to do family history and work on that, but the rest of the week I'm going to devote most of my free time to my book. I have to say that as soon as I made that decision I felt so liberated and free and SO excited. Woo!
Ok, enough about me!

Look at this adorable kid!

He didn't stop kicking his legs for the whole 30 min or so. Crazy energy just like my other two!

Dilemma. Help Me!

What am I to do? I have three things I really want to do but that each would require the majority if not all of my free time. I really seriously need some other opinion so please don't bounce away. Leave a comment!

Each of these things are things I'm passionate about but because I don't have time to commit to all three I find myself at a stand still. Which ever one I pick I want to do it whole heartedly and leave the others behind, atleast for now.

Photography
Writing my book
Family History

Photography-
I absolutely love taking pictures and have for my whole life. In the last couple years I have done a little in the way of starting my own business so to speak, being paid for several photo shoots. I spent almost all of last week redoing my photography blog and doing the best with that that I could considering my resources. But even still I'm hesitant to start advertising myself again and moving forward with it. I feel like if that's really what I want to do then I need to improve my equipment and get a real indoor shooting space, or atleast better the one I have. I don't feel like with where I'm at right now I can raise my prices at all to make these shoots and subsequent editing worth it. I might add that here in Rexburg the market is SO saturated with people building their portfolios(free!) or doing it for so cheap I have been discouraged from doing photography at all. But I LOVE it.

Writing my book-
Yes, I am writing a book and have been for about 5 1/2 years now. haha, I know, long time right? It's because I haven't decided to commit my time to it 100%. I am really excited about what I have and have so many more ideas and I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to publish it some day. But I can't help wondering if this really is a good way to spend my time. After all, who knows if I ever will get published, let alone make money off of it. Is this just me being selfish? ah!

Family History-
I have been meaning to get into this for quite some time now. I feel like this is really something I should be doing. I have yet to do it at all though and I don't even really know how. I feel like this is the least selfish way to spend my time, but won't help us out financially at all.

But then what about creating like Elder Holland talked about? I want to create something that did not exist before! But maybe these things I want to do are so time consuming it goes over the top from what he meant? I am just so stumped. Sorry, I normally don't put more personal things on here but I really need some other opinions!

An Old Hobby

Being a Mom of three young children I usually just go with the usual pony tail or bun every day. Sundays are usually the day that I will take the time to do my hair. Normally it's just straightening my hair or something close to it, but every now and then I get motivated to do something fun. I've always loved to play with hair and did it to myself a lot in highschool/college and before I had kids. I could never figure out how to do a french braid on myself though until recently, and it's so fun! So here's the fun do I did for church yesterday. I got so many compliments on it and I'm not going to lie. Sometimes it's nice to get compliments.