Happy 7th Birthday Season!

Season actually turns 28 tomorrow. She was lucky enough to have been born on Leap Year--I mean how many people do you know with that birthday. Anyway, here are 28 things I love about Season.

1. She is the most difficult person to argue with. This is definitely a positive quality because I try to avoid arguing with her at all.
2. She has great taste in clothes and I spent most of my time in her closest throughout high school. (P.S. This still applies to you today, even though I know you hate to spend money on yourself.)
3. She has the most giving heart. I have never known anyone so willing to give even her last piece of bread just to make someone else happy.

4. She has such a weakness for strange and unusual animals—ferrets, lizards, chickens, tail-sucking cats, fat basset hounds, Chihuahuas, etc.
5. Born on a leap year and proud of aging so slowly. She has never complained to me that she only has one birthday every 4 years.
6. She is best at giving advice. She is the first person I turn to when I need parenting or organizing questions answered.
7. She is very opinionated and FINALLY refuses to let herself get taken advantage of.

8. Out of all my siblings, she was probably the cutest baby.
9. She looks like an angel when she is sleeping.
10. She is a great mother to three of the cutest children.
11. She and Gary laugh a lot. I have never seen a couple laugh so much together.
12. She has the most beautiful hands. Perfectly sculpted long fingers and never-been-bitten, hard-as-rock finger nails
13. She got the BEST SMILE genes.
14. You may never believe it to look at her, but she has got a wild crazy side to her.

15. She is immensely creative and will be a well known writer some day.
16. She loves ice cream.
17. She does not like to have her picture taken which made my writing this post a little bit tricky. Excuse the dated pictures.
18. She makes beautiful birthday cakes.
19. She has transformed herself from a person who hates to clean to a clean freak.
20. One of her favorite places on our trip to Ireland was the Sally Gap (lol).
21. She does not like to be uncomfortable.
22. She finds joy in the smallest things.
23. She goes to great lengths to make us feel comfortable and entertained when we come for a visit.
24. She loves my kids and treats them as if they were her own.
25. She takes care of everyone around her.
26. She has lots more patience than I do.
27. She is the most mature seven year old I have ever met.
28. She is the best friend I could ever ask for.

Just showin' off

I don't really have anything interesting going on in my life. I don't have any really big news either. I guess those shouldn't be my only reasons for blogging. The truth is I love to show off my babies (I mean who doesn't right?). Recently I visited my mom in Mississippi. She is renting a home there until she moves there permanently. Well, on Sunday, I begged her to drive half an hour to the ward I grew up in which is not the ward boundaries she lives in anymore just to show off my two beautiful babies. So here are some cute ones.

What a Change!!!

So, I have been hating my hair for a while now. I have been highlighting for a good 10 years and it shows. My hair was frazzled and way too long. Mark kept saying, "I like your hair long. Please don't cut it." So, I just kept letting it grow and grow. I had decided that it would be my last attempt to hold on to my youth before I turned 30 (which was really hard for me but that is another story). Well, needless to say it was time for a change and what a change it was. I sat down with the stylist and told him I was ready to go brown. He got out his color book and I mentioned that I really liked Lyndsay Lohan's color. He pointed to a very dark brown, said it would lighten up a few shades and I was feeling very adventurous. So, I went for it. Then, to top it off, I told him to take it all off and he cut my hair into the cutest bob. So I went into the salon with long blonde hair and left with short dark brown hair. Sometimes, when I see myself in the mirror I do a double take just to make sure it is me. But it has grown on me and I am having a lot of fun with it. Honestly, it is the first time is has looked shiny and healthy in years.

Drumroll! Presenting Pics of our House.

I have been meaning to take a few pictures of the inside of our house. Now, I am no professional when it comes to taking pictures and my camera is not the top of the line but I am pretty proud of our new home. So, it was finally time to get these pictures posted. I have been having loads of fun experimenting with paint colors. Usually, I see something I like in the store and have to decide what room to put it in. Next I will start accessorizing but for now, enjoy the pictures with the little amount of furniture we have and excuse the mess.

This is the view from our front door looking into our living room. I spent a lot of time painting this room.

Looking into the kitchen/breakfast area from the living room.

The kitchen. I love the island and all the cabinets. Avery was trying to sneak into all of the pictures.

The formal dining room is off the kitchen. We have yet to purchase any formal dining furniture or repaint the room. (Or pick up our shoes.)

The master suite is conveniently located downstairs away from screaming children. It really is peaceful.

Upstairs we have the....

Incredibly PINK girls' room

Incredibly fun and messy Playroom

Game room/media room extraordinaire

And essential office/sewing room.

I love you Proactiv!!

Honestly, I love infomercials. I can easily be sold on anything. Talk about all the things you just can't live without--foodsavers, exercise videos, steam cleaners, etc. Once not so very long ago, I decided I just couldn't live without the Magic Bullet--you can make a whole meal in a little cup. That was a huge mistake. It took all of 10 minutes to learn that the Magic bullet was nothing but an overpriced blender that breaks in less than a week.

BOOOOO! Two Thumbs Way Down!

I began to think infomercials were just a way to sell a cheap product for oodles of bucks. That was until that cute Jessica Simpson, Kelly Clarkson, and Vanessa Williams started singing the praises of Proactiv. Most of the time my skin stays pretty clear with the occasional breakout: but, sometimes, I go through really bad skin phases. I jumped on the proactive bandwagon and I have yet to get off. That stuff seriously clears my skin in less than a week. So, sign me up for a commercial. Perhaps those infomercials aren't as bad as they seem.

Yaaaaaaay! Goodbye Zits!

Christmas in our New Home

We got to celebrate Christmas in our own home this year. We haven't done that since the first Christmas Mark and I were married. I tried really hard to get Avery and Sarah really excited for Christmas day, but it was still over their little heads. The nice thing was that we all slept in until almost 8am (unheard of in our house). It was only the four of us and definitely a Christmas to remember.

The girls in their matching Christmas PJs

Sarah loves her baby stroller

Avery loves her stocking

I love Christmas!!

Parental Duties

I have been thinking a lot about my responsibility as a mother. I am often tired and extremely impatient. I find myself yelling at my kids and getting so frustrated that I should put myself in time out. I love to read my friends' blogs and often venture off into their friends' blogs. I ran across a beautiful quote from President Hinckley in one of the blogs I came across that helped put my responsibilities in perspective.

“Never forget that these little ones are the sons and daughters of God and that yours is a custodial relationship to them, that He was a parent before you were parents and that He has not relinquished His parental rights or interest in these His little ones. Now, love them, take care of them. Fathers, control your tempers, now and in all the years to come. Mothers, control your voices; keep them down. Rear your children in love, in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Take care of your little ones. Welcome them into your homes, and nurture and love them with all of your hearts. They may do, in the years that come, some things you would not want them to do, but be patient, be patient. You have not failed as long as you have tried. Never forget that” (Salt Lake University Third Stake conference, 3 Nov. 1996).