Kynzee and Kenna trying to keep themselves entertained, they do a really good job at it and every now and then they come to me with something funny that I have to take a picture of. Gotta love funny things kids do.
Josh had a birthday today and our house was full of excitement! The kids love it when someone has a birthday. After we celebrate one birthday we have to figure out who is next on the list for a birthday and then they get all excited for that one as well as the one we just celebrated. Kids just make life so much more fun, I cannot imagine life without them it would be pretty boring. I tried to make his birthday special, I sure hope it was.
We gave him a yummy chocolate cake
His Mom made him not only one but TWO banana cream pies…his favorite! You would have thought he won a million bucks when he came home with those, he was so excited to eat a piece!
Me and the kids gave him a fun new toy, a helmet camera so he can video his motorbike races. I am excited about this because when he rides the trails I am only there to say goodbye and take a picture but I never get to see where he goes when he heads up to the mountains so this will be fun for us to watch. I think he was pretty happy with it. I know it is something he has always wanted and never would have bought it for himself so I got to do it for him :)
Josh got out of one his old helmets to see how the camera fit onto the helmet and he had to try the helmet on his boy, so cute!
Daddy and his little boy
I made him this frame with a picture of him with each of the kids, for the kids to give to him. The kids loved it and so did Dad!
Me and my little helper Kenna tried making a collage with a picture from each motorbike race Josh had rode in. We hung them in his office, he loved it! It’s hard to see but right in the middle is a picture of our whole family at one of his races…he couldn’t have a better cheer squad :)
And then later my brother and his family came over to bring a gift and ate some cake and ice cream. It was nice of them to stop by and the kids had fun playing…and eating cake!
Then he had to go to work on the night shift :( I hope it was a happy birthday for him.
I have been so far behind on blogging and just about everything else in my life right now! Sometimes I feel like I am in a Nascar race and I am spinning out of control! I have felt that way since I had Jaxon, life has just gotten crazy but it’s worth it, it really is. I just wish I had more hands during the day to do all that I need to do. I finally got caught up on my blog tonight, 12 posts to be exact, so if you want to read them all you will have to hit the previous post button :) :)! I hate getting behind on my blog because it’s my life and my journal and it can’t be out of order and the dates have to be really close to when the picture was actually taken etc etc. I know I am just crazy! So much has gone on this last little while, so much sadness and heartache in so many people’s lives, I just don’t understand some days. I know I have always been one who feels what someone else is feeling and in some ways that is good and some ways it’s bad. It sure takes a lot out of me, but it sure makes me stop and appreciate my life around me. I know we all have certain trials that we have to go through, some are harder than others, it’s just life, that is the way it is suppose to be, but that does not make it easy. I hate sad things and I hate watching friends and family members go through sad things, I always want to fix it but I can’t! This is just my little mind spinning around in circles this week. Anyway so the reason I was making this post was because Julie Beck came and spoke at BYU Idaho and one of the things she spoke on was prioritizing our lives. She has spoke on this before, in fact I have heard it multiple times but just never wrote it down and now I am going to.
She gave three categories
1. Essential Things
These are the things we must take care of for our Eternal Life
Prayer, Church, Temple, Reading and Understanding the Scriptures, Having a relationship with our Heavenly Father, Family Home Evening, etc
2. Necessary Things
These are the things we need to do to maintain our homes and families
Becoming self reliant, earning money or managing money, keeping our homes clean, cooking meals, etc
3. Nice to Do Things
This is self explanatory, but the important thing to realize about this category is that if we make this category our #1 priority, we will waste time and lose power to be a force for good or to achieve the goals we want to reach.
So she encouraged everyone to make their own list of the three categories.
My Essential Things list: scripture study (both personal and with my family), prayer (personal and with my family), Family Home Evening, Temple, Fasting, Church, Visiting Teaching
My Necessary Things list: Keeping the house organized and clean, staying caught up on my grocery shopping, planning meals ahead of time, write out bills, helping kids with school work, loving children and husband.
My Nice to Do list: Blogging, talking on the phone, scrapbooking, exercising, watching movies, reading, baking, extra sleeping
I find it helpful to be reminded of what needs to come first in my life. I think it is crazy that I can make sure the kids get to school, dance and piano on time, but do I make sure that every day at a certain time I am reading and teaching them about the scriptures? I do pretty good at it, but not all the time and not at a certain time. I think it is difficult to do the essential things first, but they bring the greatest rewards and the greatest peace knowing that they are done. Julie Beck said that once she started prioritizing this way, she found more time to get to her “Nice to Do” list! I am going to try really hard to start this little list thing and see if it helps.
Another thing Julie Beck talked about was being a Mother and what an important calling that was. We should not take our calling as a Mother lightly. If anything in our lives is taking the place of being a Mother it is wrong. When we die we will not be called school teacher, piano teacher, nurse, dancer, etc we will be called Mother. Our main and only purpose is to be a Mother. I thought that was just really cool and important to me. We are so blessed to be Mothers, I know women who have never been able to be Mothers and some who have literally gone through the worst things to become a Mother. I am so grateful to be called a Mother and that I have never felt in my heart that I didn’t want to be a Mother, I am so blessed.
Jaxon really loves bananas, anything with banana and he will eat it! What am I saying…serious this kid eats anything and everything!! But he does like bananas. He wanted me to open this banana so bad and I was taking pictures, he was getting angry with me really fast.
Well here we are again another year of dancing, this is my 5th year of taking little girls to dance and then getting to watch them perform. They are so cute out there doing their dances it really makes me smile! I love watching them have so much fun. It is good for them to dance so they have something during the winter to keep them active.
Look at all those little girls…so cute!
I can’t forget these two having fun together!
Jaxon is so cautious when he is in the tub. I finally got a picture of him with his legs and hands planted on the bottom just like he likes it. He doesn’t want me to move him at all, he likes it just like this. He very rarely will even take his hands off the bottom to grab a toy, he wont even sit with his legs out, they have to be just like they are in these pictures, I think it is so funny. Out of all four of my kids I have never had one like him :)
I know my sister will beat me for posting these but that’s okay I will deal with that later. They were just too cute to leave out. Jaxon was sitting on Katie’s lap and he was looking at her belly and then looking down at his and it was so funny I had to take a picture.
We got to go to Utah for another Motorbike race and it was so much fun! I could sit and watch motorbikes race all day, I just love it. I am pretty sure it is because I grew up with motorbikes, and my Dad and brothers were always watching motorbikes race on TV. I hate that they wreck and some are so dangerous, but it is fun to watch. The kids have a blast and they get more and more comfortable every time we go. Here are some pictures of our trip, motorbike season has just begun and I am so excited. Motorbike season is a lot better than hunting season!!! And if anyone can give me some pointers on taking pictures of moving motorbikes in a weird lighted arena it would be helpful because I am not very good at it, thanks.
Daddy and the girls
Daddy and his boy
I don’t know how many times the girls walked up and down this stairs, but it was a lot because they loved standing by the rail to watch.
And here is Maddy riding and Kynzee cheering her on, I love how good they are to each other!
Maddy is a good little rider and she is getting more brave all the time, she loves it!!
And here is our Dad with the girls down below giving him a thumbs up (I love this)
I love the big flag that flies above the track!
And this is not good!!! Can you see Josh rolled in a ball on the ground and can you see his bike doing a wheely down the track straight up in the air? I am not sure what happened here, but Maddy got it on video and I got a picture, that bike pretty much jumped out from underneath him while he was doing a wheely. Crazy, crazy! And little Kenna saw it happen and she said “Daddy fell off his bike Momma”
But here is right after, he got back on his bike and started it up and kept going.
And by the end of the night (both nights) this is what Kenna and Jaxon were doing, so tired from watching motorbikes all day, but they were so good for me!! Not a cry or a whine, just busy busy all day.
This is what is was doing when we left the arena and Maddy and Josh were riding their motorbikes to the car…can you see Maddy behind the huge snowflakes?
And there’s Josh behind those big snowflakes! (I am not a very good snowflake photographer)
