Oh what do you do in the Winter time when all the world (should be) white?

Do you swing on the swings?

 

 Or mow your back lawn?

Or draw with Chalk til the sun goes down? Is that what you do? So do we!

LAN Party

Marcella off to play Minecraft with Alex Salazar. 

Daughters of God

One of the fun things about being in Stake YW's is I get the chance to teach twice a year. Yes get to. In theory I LOVE teaching the young women. In reality, my stomach turns to knots, my mouth goes dry because my eyes are taking up all the water in my body and those 6 girls I taught on Sunday scare me to death. However yesterday I was able to teach on one of my favorite topics: Knowing you are a Daughter of God. There is something that happens to you when you come to understand that we are truly Sons and Daughters of God. You act a little better and think differently about yourself and others. I thought I would share the videos I played for the girls. Hope you enjoy! Happy Monday!

Best Friends

 One of the saddest things about making friends, is that life happens and they have to move away. We are not quite sure when this little friend is going to move, but I can tell you it is going to be one sad day. (Most likely more than just one sad day!)

On a happier note, Marcella lost some teeth! Her big tooth started coming through and none of her teeth were loose. The dentist said it would be best to take all three! So Thursday afternoon Marcella lost 3 teeth. She no longer can say her S's and she has a bit of a lisp, which makes me chuckle a little every time I hear it, but she loves it.

"Mom, when the dentist pulls my teeth out do I HAVE to give them to the tooth fairy?"
"Well no, but why don't you want to give them to her?"
"I just really want to keep my teeth. Can I please keep them?"
"Sure, I guess so."

Not sure if the tooth fairy will ever visit this girl, but for some reason she carries her teeth in a box in her pocket and she thinks they are the coolest thing ever. Love you Cella Bella!

Lizzy!

This beautiful, amazing, funny, smart, loveable sister of ours just got her mission call. Any guesses? Ours were all wrong. In Feb. she is heading to Lusaka, Zambia. Here is a map so you won't have to look up where in the world it is.

 I don't know about you, but when I think of Africa I picture things like:

 This, or these

 

 and I don't think Lizzy will get to do much of this:

 

 However I believe she will see a bunch of this:

This is a Lusaka market, and some tidbits of info about the country. Presently three out of four Zambians live in poverty and more than half of them are extremely poor and unable to meet their minimum nutritional needs. For poor rural people, ensuring food security is a constant preoccupation. Many of the poorest people live in households headed by women and households in which one or more members are chronically ill, generally with HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis or malaria.

On a more positive note the Zambia mission was opened in July of 2011! Zambia has some of the lower percentages of Latter-day Saints in continental Africa one member per 5,620 in Zambia . You will have your work cut out for you Lizzy!  As much as I just keep tearing up, I am so excited for you. I have such a HUGE array of emotions happening all at once. I am scared to death and very excited for you! I know you will be in good hands. I mean look at these Mission Presidents (This is them right?)

Mikele R. and Arlene C. Padovich

Mikele Roman Padovich, 61, and Arlene Louise Crist Padovich, four children, Zambia Lusaka Mission; Saugus 2nd Ward, Santa Clarita California Stake. He serves as a high councilor and is a former counselor in a stake presidency, bishop, counselor in a bishopric, ward mission leader, gospel doctrine teacher and missionary in the Northern States Mission. Executive, Warner Bros. Studio. Born in Burbank, Calif., to Joseph and Melba Mary Chadburn Padovich.
Sister Padovich serves as a seminary teacher and is a former stake Primary president, stake Young Women board member, Relief Society board member, Relief Society president, Primary president, and Young Women board member. Born in Gary, Ind., to Earl Clyde and Emma Alice Woolston Crist.


We love you Lizzy and am so excited for you! Marcella has been pouring over her atlas for the past couple hours talking non stop about where you are going. We can't wait to see the work of the Lord move along. Thank you for being such a great example. We sure LOVE you Lizzy!

Happy Halloween

 Of course there is Pumpkin carving. Can you tell who wanted to touch the guts and who couldn't stand it?

Claire called Marcella's pumpkin scary and was fascinated and afraid of it at the same time. It was pretty funny. 

This year we had a Halloween dinner. Marcella posted our menu here:

Mouse Brains

(stuffed mushrooms)

 Eye ball soup

 Claire was little Red riding hood this year and Marcella was a cow girl

Here is our gang of trick or treaters.  We had a lot of fun walking the neighborhood and getting candy.

A little late

October is Down Syndrome Awareness month. As much as I thought about writing about it, the month just flew by! Today Jon shared this video that I knew in an instant I wanted to share with anyone who may happen to look at this little blog. So Grab a couple tissues and enjoy.

Focus

A word that I have been constantly thinking and contemplating about lately is: Focus. Such an interesting word. A word that by itself doesn't mean too much, but when paired with something it can make all the difference. Which brings me to my life lately and the time old question, what am I focusing on? Well Lately it has been, Am I the Mother I really want to be?

A couple weeks ago I had a really bad day and I realized I needed to figure something out or I was going to snap. What it came down to was what am I focusing on? It started with my typical list. Well, I have been too worried about keeping the house clean and not keeping the feeling in our home a place you want to be. I am focusing on the things that "need" to get done rather than the people doing the tasks.  On and on my mental list went until really it came to a head when this inspired question popped into my head. "Do you even like being a Mother?" 

I love the old saying fake it until you make it, because I feel like it is so true. I have tried it in so many things and it really works so why not with Motherhood?  I started putting it to the test. What would I be doing if I absolutely loved everything about being a Mother? I would be constantly reading about Motherhood. I would be finding out different ways to improve and become the Mother I want to be.  I would be discussing it with other moms and putting into practice the things I learned. So in my search I found this wesite

 

 

It was the answer to many prayers. Don't you just love the title? Deliberate Mothers. Am I a Deliberate Mother? Go check it out. If this was ever a place where you could find answers to questions or if you just need to be uplifted to keep on going, this is the place to go. 

 

One article I read talked about getting in the picture and challenged Mothers to get in the pictures with your kids and to document the everyday.   I felt like if I was going to be working on becoming a deliberate mother than this must be my homework. Here is my first assignment.

 

 

It only took a few tries to get it right, but it was well worth it. There is something about looking at a memory, you can still feel how you felt. I love that decorating sugar cookies became all about being present and focused on the moment. 

In this journey I have embarked on to become better I have decided that documenting our moments and life is my mental facet I will be working on.   (seriously listen to this podcast taking care of the WHOLE Mom. It has helped me to become more focused) Plus it will make my mom super happy that I will be posting more! Love you mom. 

 

When I was in college there came a point when I asked myself what I really wanted to be when I "grew up" and what major would help me get there. Well I knew I wanted to be a mother so I immersed myself in the Family and Consumer sciences and learned so much. It is time to immerse myself once again in real life mothering.  I feel the amazing thing about being in a church that focuses so much on families is we have the opportunity to surround ourselves with amazing examples of motherhood. Yet do we take advantage of the help and support we could get and give?  I would love if anyone out there would like to discuss motherhood or join a learning circle with me. I love you all! 

 

 

Just because this makes me smile

today

 As I woke up this morning I knew it would be a bit different. There is a crispness to the air that makes it perfect sweater weather, yet it just left me longing to be here

 

I miss the cabin today. I miss snuggling up with a cozy blanket reading a book on a not so comfy couch, but not caring because you will be able to stay in that spot until you finish. I wish we went more often.

 

 I miss Salt Lake City. I miss taking my kids to Temple square. I miss letting them run around at Gateway. I miss being so close to so many Temples. I miss being in the city one minute and up the canyon another. 

  

Oh the Canyon. I miss everything about you. The quickness we could be up there and away from the craziness of life. I miss the dirt that would be caked on my kids after 5 minutes of being there.

 

I miss the company that would join us.  I miss sitting on her couch having late night laughter spells. 

 

and today I am really missing my families. I miss the Sunday dinners, come overs, games,  slide shows, popcorn, movies, summer nights, and just you. I wish I could just give you all a big hug!

End of School

Marcella's school had a bunch of fun activities during the last week of school. One activity was to decorate a wagon and be in a book parade. Marcella was super excited about it and so here is Marcella and her float.

Can you guess which book? We sure had a lot of help making this. Ashley, Cyndi and Heather thanks for the fun late nights. You gals are awesome! 

You had to pick a book you have read and to be honest I wondered what Marcella would remember about the Hobbit since Jon had read it to her last year and I wasn't quite sure if she even knew what was going on.  In the end she surprised me a couple times, by reminding me to add certain details about the book that I had even forgotten about. 

The best part? Eating it when we were done. I was amazed at how easy marshmallow fondant is to make. Yummy!

Marcella on the last day of school.  They put on a little program.  I am not sure which was more fun to watch, Marcella or Claire, because Marcella had taught Claire all the songs and actions so she was in heaven while sitting in the audience singing right along with them. 

Marcella and Mrs. Wright. We sure loved Marcella's kindergarten teacher this year. Marcella had so much fun and LOVES school. In fact if you ask what she is most excited about this summer... "Well when school starts again!"  She is excited to go to school all day and eat lunch at school! I just can't believe she is going into 1st grade!

Mother's Day

 
Over the past few years I have come to learn that if you want something to be amazing and a certain way then you just have to tell the one who is in charge of making it happen. Since I have started spelling everything out and maybe even "planning" my own special days, they have been exactly what I wanted them to be and more. So on to Mother's Day 2012. 

 (Well after you enjoy this incredibly cute picture of little Claire.)

Let me back up just a little and show you this picture of how lovely our garden looked the end of April.  

 Yea, I know. Lovely isn't it?

So lovely I just had to show you another.

and last, but not least, one other spot in our yard.

This lucky fella happened to have a ONE week break before I lost him to Purdue again for a grueling summer filled with lots of studying and exams.  I saw my window of opportunity and I grabbed it. My Mother's day gift consisted of turning our "lovely" garden into a "wow I really like that garden", garden. (not to be confused with the "wow I wish I had that back yard and that garden" kind of garden, of which I plan on trying to accomplish next year. Ha, if only we were no longer students!)

 

So with a little bit of help from these hard workers and...

this fabulous working station. (added this picture just for you Caroline. I knew you would love the "folding chair" I mean cutting table on the right)

and he changed this lovely garden into this...

Then jumping ahead to today, since really we just didn't take any more pictures after all the boxes were in, here is what it looks like today.

Small disclaimer: Indiana is in a drought. It is kind of crazy, but no one here waters their lawn. So as you can see when we got back from Utah we had dormant grass. Crossing our fingers that it rains a lot in July.

Thanks for all the hard work. This present just keeps on giving...umm anyone want zucchini? I am seriously amazed at how big our carrots have gotten. They are so yummy! Our cherry tomatoes have grown out of control and I can't wait for all the green fruit to turn red. Remember last year yep the bunny is back and driving us crazy. Dang bunny!