A Very Family Weekend!

It started out with Mr. Charming here taking me out on a date. Life has been hectic lately and our dates are a lot of fun. Then on Saturday it was Chris' 22nd birthday. He wanted the family to all be here for his B-day. The guys took off to pick up our season tickets to the new Real Soccer Stadium. And we girls just chilled. I pulled out Cinderella, and the princess didn't love it.

Do you see how amazed this sweet little baby is to be looking at me, her grandma!:-)

She was so happy I was holding her that she wanted to give me kisses. The fact that she was hungry had nothing to do with it!

When grandpa got back he wanted to play with the girls.

We decided to compare Elizabeth to Beatrice, and I love the look on her face.

Chris wanted Cheesecake for his birthday. I hadn't made one in a long time and this one went a little flat, but he loved it.

Then Issy took him his gifts and helped him open them all. Later he had to keep lighting his candles and letting her blow them out, she loved it.

Then on Sunday my Aunt Brenda came over with her daughter Stacy and her family. We had dinner and enjoyed each others company. This is a cool trick that they did. These forks are hanging on a toothpick that is resting on the tip of another tooth pick. It was kind of crazy.

We did a lot of talking. We always like to talk:-)

We watched a little bit of Wall-E, these little guys settled in, they didn't even need a pillow. Oh, to be young again!

Aunt Brenda, Erin and the tiny princess.

These two kids were due within a month of each other, but Kelsy was early and Nathan was late so they are about 2 months apart.

Kelsey is great with the little ones. The princess just loves her, and her two little sisters do too. She was so sweet carrying around 3 little ones.

We had a nice visit. It's fun to be in an area where we actually have "family" to visit. After they all left the Tiny Princess woke up. She slept most of the time they were here. Issy so far really like her new little sister. She gets excited to go and say "hi" and give her kisses.

This is a sweet little picture of Elizabeth I love it when her eyes are open:-)

I blew out my struts!

I blew out my struts.... Isn't that a Jimmy Buffet song? Oh no that's, I blew out my flip flop.....


So the good news is it wasn't my transmission that would have cost around $3,000 to fix.

It was my struts which are a part of your shocks somehow. But my car is a newer car and you have to get the parts from the dealership yada...yada...yada. So in the end it was $550 to fix it.

So we will be eating beans for a month!

Got any good recipes:-) I found a couple.

One that looks tasty and one that is crazy!

Shipwreck Casserole
2 medium potatoes, sliced thin
1 medium onion, sliced
1 pound (15 1/2- or 16-ounce) can kidney beans, drained
1/4 cup rice, uncooked 1 cup celery, diced
1 pound lean ground beef, uncooked
1 10 1/2-ounce can tomato soup
1/2 cup water
dash chili powder, optional
dash basil, optional
dash oregano, optional
Grease a 2-1/2 quart casserole dish and layer the above ingredients in the order listed. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 1/4 hours or until done. Serve hot. May be prepared ahead. Can be frozen.
Serves 6.

Bean Pie

This pie tastes like Pecan pie and can be served with whipped cream, non-dairy whipped topping or a scoop of ice cream.
* 1 cup of mashed Pinto beans* 1/2 cup sugar* 1 cup brown sugar* 1/2 cup butter * 2 eggs, beaten* Unbaked pie shell
Instructions:1 1/2 cup cooked beans equals about 1 cup, mashed. Blend sugars, eggs and butter until creamy. Add pinto beans and blend well.
Pour into 9 inch unbaked shell. Bake at 375 F for 20 minutes, then at 350 for an additional 25 minutes or until inserted knife comes out clean.

I do love pecan pie. ?????

Lot's of the Princess.....

So Chris and I went to his "weekly" visit to the clinic. Then Erin called and ask if we would meet her on the way home to do a little shopping. So we met them at the store and were very excited to see the girls. The Princess was wearing the hat her grandpa bought her, and when I pulled out the camera she started winking one eye at me, but of course I never caught that. We walked around and shopped for a while. I held little Elizabeth for a while and then discovered that I hadn't had her tiny feet covered and they were so cold. As a side note, she never woke up so she never knew she spent so much time with her grandma, she slept through our entire shopping trip. Anyway the princess got a little sad and wanted grandma, so I gave the baby to her mom, and Issy and I headed over to get little baby socks for those tiny cold feet.

The princess was saying "bebe socks" it was so cute. Then we saw hats so grandma tried some on her. I found little Easter hats around the corner, but she was done trying hats on.

So she wanted some hair clips and grandma got her some. I love her prissiness!

We headed back to find her mother and uncle. Her uncle was walking around carrying a purse. It was funny because he was helping Erin with the diaper bag and didn't realise he was holding it. some how he just doesn't look like the kind of guy who carries a bag so he looked funny to me.

Then the princess got next to her sister and wanted Elizabeth to have the socks. I was talking to the kids and not paying much attention.

But she insisted that the "bebe" get the socks. So I put them right in front of Elizabeth and Issy was very pleased.

Shopping made her hungry and she needed a snack. She started squeezing her eyes shut when I pulled out the camera.

We stopped at a vending machine and printed out a name tag for the dog. We needed one with our phone number on it. It was pretty cool to watch the machine engrave it.

We then whipped over to Sam's and the baby still didn't wake up.

We had a fun time shopping and playing but it was time for us all to go home. The princess was waving "goodbye."

Then she was happy with her sunglasses and goldfish.

In the mean time as Chris and I were driving home there is a lot of road construction going on between Erin and our house. I am a little OCD about watching the entire road when I am driving. Mike doesn't always notice the passenger side of the road, and it drives me nut's. I say didn't you see that thing on the road you almost hit it. Well I pride myself on noticing the entire road. I was driving home and saw a patched spot on the road. It looked smooth, but I still thought I would avoid it, and straddle the patch. Well I greatly misjudged something and banged my car really bad into a pot hole, front and back. It was so loud and hard I kept replaying it in my head the rest of the way home. Then when I got up yesterday morning and headed out, their was a puddle of liquid sitting under my tire. Chris and I smelled it, then smelled all the clear liquids in the car. It smelled the most like transmission fluid. So now I am a nervous wreck to see if I broke my transmission. Yikes!!!!!

A visit to the girls......

So Monday I realized that it had almost been a week since I had seen the girls. So after errands and such we ran over to Erin's house. The Princess was getting sick and they were going to a doctors appointment. Erin's first outing alone with both girls. We got to her house an hour before she had to go. Mike and I had to take turns holding the girls. We would switch off and I'm proud to say we shared them very well. I got the princess dressed and fixed her hair while Mike held the baby. Then Mike played with the princess while I got Elizabeth dressed. Elizabeth had just eaten and was very alert and awake. She was so sweet, she just was looking around everywhere, and turning her head, all while I stole her kisses. We got the girls all ready and helped Erin get them in the car. Erin not having a c-section before started to feel better and over did it over the weekend. So she appreciated the extra help. I hadn't taken my camera in the house with me and the girls were so cute. So we followed Erin to the gas station. Mike wanted to pump the gas for her, so she didn't have to stand in the snow. So I ran and got more kisses and got a picture of the girls. Elizabeth had fallen to sleep, being all snuggled up. And Issy was happy to see me. I never catch her smiles on the camera.

The doctor said, Issy was just getting a cold, and they don't give any kind of cold medicine to kids until they are 4 years old now, so she just has to suffer it out. Erin is just worried because she doesn't want the baby to get it.

The girls took off and Mike put gas in my car. Gas is $1.65 around here. I don't know what it is any where else. But we dropped down to $1.28, so I'm annoyed that we are back up even that high.

The snow was coming down not hard but steady. And it was blowing to the north, it stuck to the north of everything, like moss.

The toughest part was when the red lights were filled with snow. And the lights were harder to see. Later that night we got a pretty heavy snow storm. It is so pretty to watch the snow falling.

a touching hymn made me think....

Life can be interesting, and boy it can really come back at you, and kick you in the bum.

When I was a young mom, I would see older couples at church and judge them. Now I didn't judge them out loud or talk about them. But I quietly judged them and summed them up. It was simple, if all of their children were active in the church they were good parents. If they had one or more children that had left the church or were not active then I decided, while they were nice, they had done something wrong as parents.

In our religion we have a conundrum we strive to live a more perfect life. We try to live our lives to be focused on Christ and his teachings. And to teach our children to live the same way. Christ is perfect and to try to live up to his life, teachings, and example takes daily work. Some days are harder than others, those are the days that we push forward, you know "Put your shoulder to the wheel, push a long." When we are with all of the other members, they all seem so perfect and we get strength from their strength. But the things we don't see are their struggles. Today we sang a song at church that touches me ever time I hear it. The phrase I love so much is, "in the quiet heart is hidden, sorrows that the eye can't see." That is the reality, there are lot's of good, strong, happy people at church. But most of them have some kind of sorrow in their "quiet hearts."

So back to when I was a young dumb judgmental mom. I would go to church and everybody would appear as close to perfect as possible. So if something happened in their lives that was less than perfect, I was shocked! Oh the Smiths aren't absolutely perfect, or the Jones have problems, well they must not be living right. I was scandalized by their imperfection. The exact opposite of what Christ teaches. He teaches to love and not judge. I judged, don't get me wrong it was all in my own mind I never said things to other people. Just had quiet judgemental thoughts in my head.

I on the other hand was living as perfect of a life as I was willing to work at. Choosing which ideals of my religion had highest priority and which ideals I would need to "work" on. In other words put those things off until I was older and felt like working on that area. I taught my children right from wrong, I taught them about God, love and service. I felt good about myself as a mom.

Wow, have I paid for my judgmental ways. There is nothing like having one of your children become a heroin addict, to humble you and bring you to your knees. The heartache, the "what if's", the total devastation of realizing that you weren't the perfect mother. That you made mistakes. The heartbreak of watching your child suffer for the really bad choices he has made. I now know that phrase well "In the quiet heart is hidden, sorrows that the eye can't see. Who am I to judge another, lord I would follow thee" It has given me so much freedom to be able to admit that things aren't perfect in my life. That I tried what I thought was my best, and things didn't work out the way I had planned. I have the freedom to love other people and not judge them. To morn with those that morn, and not have to keep up the pretence that everything is "PERFECT." I have the freedom to love my kids no matter what they do, and not because they grew up to be perfect and never make mistakes. I will admit it hurts sometimes when others look at your kids and judge them for their mistakes. Or when people not knowing what is going on in that "quiet heart", judge somebody you care about. I think that there is a lot of pain in people not judging you, but judging the people around you, you family, your friends.

I just wish when I was a young mom that we didn't all feel like we were failing if we were not perfect. We failed if we didn't have the perfect family, children, or home. I feel like we have moved away from the judging and more into "do the best you can and never quit trying." I hope that attitude will help young moms be better than me. Because "Who am I to judge another when I walk imperfectly......." I just love that song:-)

The kids.......

Sunday all of the kids were over. Erin felt up to getting out of the house for a bit. So Elizabeth visited Grandma and Grandpa's house for the first time. She didn't seem as excited as I would have like for her to be:-) The princess got up and scratched Nate's back it was so cute. Then Steven enjoyed a little alone time with Elizabeth.........

and Chris wanted his turn too.

Then even though it wasn't super cold out the princess got bundled up to go home. She also decided to take home her alphabets letters, she called "b's", that are for the tub.

This morning I got up and had a naughty breakfast. I little remembrance of Holland. They put sprinkles on their toast. So I opened one of my tiny packs and sprinkled "real" dark chocolate sprinkles on my toast. they get all melty on the hot buttered toast and it it so good.

Then I headed over to see the girl for a while. The princess just had to hold her sister.

And I rented a chihuahua movie from the red box and watched it with Issy. She loves dogs so I thought she would like the movie. I was trying to get a candid shot but when she saw the camera she got up and posed like this for me to take the picture.

Then she got 2 of her many little stuffed dogs and set them in the chair next to her to watch the movie. Some times when the movie got exciting she would hold one of them up to show the movie she had a dog too.

Then she started getting silly. She pushed herself back and you can see her little eyes looking back at me. She is so fun to be with. And her sister is such a pleasure to just sit, hold, and kiss on!

A fun Saturday night.....

So Saturday night our ward had an adult dance. The theme was "Blast from the Past" we were to dress in either 50's, 60's, 70's or 80's garb. I didn't put much effort into it. I hit Wal mart a few hours before and got glasses, earrings, and a scarf. But man did some people go all out. Next time we will put a little more effort into it. Because Mike went dressed more like the 50's and me like the 60's:-) (The fact I even put these pictures on my blog proves I'm not a vain person, because I looked scary!) This is a great friend. She is a lot of fun. Except that she is the Stake Relief Society President and had Mike and I speak at a Stake Relief Society Meeting in February, two days after our little Elizabeth was born! (she did ask last July:-)

This cool 80's rock couple, or Joe Dirt and wife, are our neighbors. And he has the same name as one of my most favorite singers, Rod Steuart. I enjoy telling people that I'm neighbors with Rod Steuart, and actually on the other side of us is a guy named Zane Grey. So 2 famous neighbors.

These guys are a lot of fun, she is the activities committee leader. They do amazing things. Remember the shots at the Halloween Party in October? She did all of that decorating!

This is a cute couple in the ward. I told them they looked like they were straight out of "Pretty in Pink."

The shaggy headed guy in the middle is our Bishop. He is a great guy.

This is one of my Book group friends. She is heavily involved with the Miss Utah Program. And she is a lot of fun. I thought her and her husband looked so cute, he even has the old school shoes on:-)

It was a fun night with lots of fun outfits and dancing.

After the dance a few couples, who didn't have to get home to babysitters, went to a fun ice cream place. They put the ice cream mix in a metal bowl in liquid form. Then they add what ever the gas is that freezes it (I forgot) and they stir it up while it freezes.

Then they scoop it into a container. It was quite yummy!