First hair cut

Jackson got his first hair cut today. (at 14 months) He loved it. Pretty much the total opposite reaction than livys experience. He is so darn cute. I didnt think he could get any cuter. But he did! (pictures courtesy of ben's iphone-gotta love that phone!)

Thankful Tree

Last night for Family Night we did our annual Thankful Tree. It is always a huge hit with Brooke. She loved writing things on the leaves and Livy especially loved gluing everything on...even if she did use the entire glue stick for three leaves, it was a joy. Brooke kept saying, "Mom, I just love this! I am so thankful for...." It is a great feeling to think that she enjoyed something so much that it might actually be sinking in.

Last night we also gave the girls awards. I am trying to do things to recognize the little things and praise my kids more. So Brooke got the Superstar Award! She was ecstatic. It was for her determination in making sure the toy room was clean and her room was picked up. And then even looking for other jobs to do. I love it when she gets in those helpful moods and says, "Mom, is there anything I can do to help you?" Love it!

Livy got the Princess Award for being so happy yesterday. She was very quick to say thank you for everything. And then saying "That was good manners, huh Mom."

Ben has been doing such an awesome job of being organized enough to remind me and talk about the FHE lesson on Sunday afternoon. Rather than scrambling to think about something on Monday evening. He is even so awesome that he has been planning the lessons lately! It is AWESOME to say the least!

But when we still have those times that we are scrambling I like to think of Elder Bednars words from a few conferences back.

Sometimes Sister Bednar and I wondered if our efforts to do these spiritually essential things were worthwhile. Now and then verses of scripture were read amid outbursts such as “He’s touching me!” “Make him stop looking at me!” “Mom, he’s breathing my air!” Sincere prayers occasionally were interrupted with giggling and poking. And with active, rambunctious boys, family home evening lessons did not always produce high levels of edification. At times Sister Bednar and I were exasperated because the righteous habits we worked so hard to foster did not seem to yield immediately the spiritual results we wanted and expected.

Today if you could ask our adult sons what they remember about family prayer, scripture study, and family home evening, I believe I know how they would answer. They likely would not identify a particular prayer or a specific instance of scripture study or an especially meaningful family home evening lesson as the defining moment in their spiritual development. What they would say they remember is that as a family we were consistent. (More Diligent and Concerned at Home. October 2009. click here)

Today I am thankful that we planned a Family Night Lesson that was so fun for the kids!

Music and Moods

Music helps moods. Music changes moods. I love that my girls can change their cranky/dramatic mood into cheery, goofy, fun girls by pushing the play button on the cd player (yes we still live in the dark ages and have a cd player). I love that Livy sticks out her tongue and moves her shoulders and hands. I love how Brooke tries all different moves. Even trying the "cabbage patch kid", or " the running man", or "the roger rabbit". You can't help but smile and have fun! Or I love it when their heads and shoulders bob or their legs move to "their beat" when they are sitting and coloring when fun music comes on.

I am grateful for fun music this morning!

I am also grateful for beautiful little children. even if they are a bit whiny and crabby when they wake up sometimes.

I'm grateful its Monday and we get to do Family Home Evening tonight and focus on more things that we are thankful for! I'm glad i get to teach my kids more specifically about the gift of gratitude!

Do you like Fremont....

What is better than 7 kids having a dance party in your kitchen/family room for an hour in the midst of eating lunch? Muddy kids running in and out of the house, playing "farm" in the mudhole in the backyard? Marble towers in the toy room and tag around the entire house, in the neighbors yard who is trying to mow his lawn and behind the shed and side yards?

Sure, i haven't gotten one thing on my to do list done. But I swept the floor, and cleaned up the books amidst the dance party. I reminisced how much fun it is to be a kid. And Ben and I had so much fun dancing with the kids!

And so when people ask me sometimes, Do you really like fremont? I am a little bit taken back. I like fremont. I like it because we live in an awesome neighborhood with lots of kids. We have incredible friends. We still go to Husky football games together. We play at the church parking lot (it is kind of like Parkmont park was, when I was a kid). We had movie night on the lawn with a big white sheet and projector with 6 families from our neighborhood on thursday. We have a lot of fun!!

So yes, i love fremont because my little life for my kids now, is how I remember childhood. Playing at each other's houses, playing in the yard with friends in the neighborhood, and lots of good friends that feel like family!

Life is good!

Dear Utah,

I hate you.

You take my dearest friends. I need them here in California.

Just in the last few months you stole Candice, then Stephanie and Melanie. And now Melissa.

I was so thankful when Melissa moved into the ward, because I knew we would raise our kids together and be such good friends. The kind of friends who could call each other in an instant to help when we were in a lurch. The kind of friends who are up to going to do anything without having to plan it days in advance. The kind of friends that had the same goals in mind: being good moms, being good friends and having fun while doing it.

And I was even more grateful because I knew she liked California, so we just knew they would stick around. And what was even better is that we had history together. And lets face it, history makes friendships run really deep, really fast. Those roots make it so strong.

And so Utah, I hate you even more because you will have another piece of my heart two states away from this too expensive place called the bay area.

Not Very Fondly,

Ashley

Intentions....

"The Road to Hell is Paved with good intentions."

I don't know where that quote came from, but every time I plan on doing something and then it falls through, I kind of give myself a little feel good talk and think, well at least I had good intentions. And then that quote creeps into my mind. And sometimes it makes me more motivated and others times I shrug my shoulders and say, "Well, I guess I know where I am going."

This week was one of those weeks I had great intentions. I intended to update this blog, since I don't keep any other journals lately. You know, update it all the way back to our summer break. With pictures and all. But then Ben's computer was stolen. (along with the window being smashed in, his projector and iPad and entire computer bag stolen and then his bag on fire in the next city over. Business cards spilled out with Ben's name and info and him getting called by the cops and accused of doing it...it is a great story, he will have to post about later) And that is where all of our pictures are stored. So he tried to upload the pictures from the online back-up (thankfully Ben was a genius and actually did that a few months back), this computer crashed...so i got discouraged and haven't even attempted to try to update this old blog here because I don't have the pictures. But, hey, I had good intentions.

I also had good intentions of making some great memories with the kids since Brooke had two days off. I thought and thought about what we should do. The tech museum (i had some discounted tickets), the beach, the tide-pools, biking in San Fran, just something really fun to get out of the sometimes-monotonous feeling routine of school. Well it proved to be all thoughts. All we did was go to the park. Which is always really fun, but my grand intentions ended up being just that, intentions.

I have some great things in store for tomorrow, and unless I make a list and narrow specifics down as to what I really want to get done, tomorrow again will pass by with just intentions instead of anything actually getting done.

And hopefully next week, I will record some of the things we have been up to.....or actually finish some of the trillions of posts I have in my draft box....and maybe they won't be just intentions.

Holiday Boutique

We are having a Holiday Boutique tomorrow, Saturday, Nov. 6th, at my house! There will be designer hand-made crafts, blown glass, unique gifts, skin care baskets, candles, make-up, baby things and accessories and more. So stop on by! 10:30am-2:30pm

Sunrise

Brooke got up early this morning and helped me get the garbage cans out to the street. She loved helping (And i am glad she was there because we were racing to get them out to the curb in time.) We noticed the sun just coming up and the sky and clouds were just beautiful. So instead of rushing off to get showered before the other kids woke up and start the laundry. We got a blanket and a beach chair and I sat on the front porch holding her while watching the sky change brilliant colors. We talked about sunrises and sunsets, horizons, the sun and the earth and colors. It was so peaceful and joyful. It was a great teaching moment for the way the earth rotates, it was a great "mommy date", and it was a great time to reflect how much joy we find in the little things.

Thanks for waking up early with me today, Brooke.

Dance Party

Dance Party

Dance Parties lighten the mood. Especially at 8am, when everyone is a bit cranky and hasn't gotten enough sleep!!! We've been out of the habit for a while, but we definitely need to start doing them daily again. I'm on the lookout for a new mix of songs. Party in the USA is getting a little old after 8 million times. Any suggestions for good dance songs....