Reasons I Love Being a Mom

-Dandelion bouquets
-Open mouth, sticky, wet kisses
-Little warm fingers holding mine
-Aidan saying, "You look beautiful Mom!" when I haven't showered all day
-Reading storybooks
-Pictures left for "MOMMY" on my bedside table
-Running my fingers through soft baby hair
-Arms that reach out for you, and only you
-Lavender baby lotion and hooded towels
-Mispronounced words, that only you understand
-Spontaneous dance parties
-Watching a face light up when they understand something
-Little hands clapping
-Baby shoes
-Little dresses and hair bows
-Cuddling on the couch
-Fingerprints on the sliding glass door
-Pushing kids on swings over and over
-Laughing and giggles

P.S. I just thought of another one! I love that my kisses seem to have magical healing properties!

Culinary Genius

Wyatt likes to eat. He eats a lot. Several times a day, I hear the words, "Cereal, mama?" or have the peanut butter and jelly jars (tucked under two little arms) brought to me. When I don't get to it quite as fast as he wants, he has been experimenting in creating his own, pulling over a chair to stand on so he can reach the counter. Yep, he poured his cereal onto a plate. At least he didn't try to add milk. My little culinary genius.

A Walk on the Wild Side

I might have my hands full in the future. We seem to be raising some crazy kids! Aidan went to a birthday party yesterday and got this cool snake tattoo. He insisted he put it one RIGHT NOW. He thinks he is so cool-he says that he is the coolest kid on the block with a tattoo. Where do they learn this stuff?Here is my princess sporting a rockin' mohawk. It is everything I can do to keep ponytails in her hair. She usually leaves them in until naptime, when she tears them out (hair included) and she spends the rest of the day looking like this. Lydia seems to prefer the punk look.Sigh.

The Strawberry Jam Adventure

I asked Aidan if he wanted to go on an adventure today after Church. Always up for a challenge, he said yes. So, I gave him his mission-turn these strawberries into jam. He accepted and made Wyatt his second in command. We got right to work.Their first order of business was to taste the strawberries to see if they were tasty enough for jam. After deeming the fruit, "way good," we discovered we had a little sister problem. After discussing the issues, we decided that she would help taste test.So, we put her in her high chair and fed her strawberries and waffles. It kept her happy. These are the 16 lbs of strawberries. Aidan and Wyatt had a big job ahead of them. Since Aidan can't use sharp knives yet, he put me to work cutting the tops off and chopping them up. Aidan took this picture of me slicing up the strawberries.

Wyatt eating "apples". His duties mainly consisted of eating every other strawberry that I cut up. He insisted on calling the strawberries apples-even when we told him over and over again that they were strawberries. In fact, he would "correct" us, "No, mama, apples." He ate a lot of "apples."
Aidan's first big job was to crush up the strawberries. This handy dandy little tool was heaven sent in our strawberry jam making adventure. Even Aidan could turn the handle and it really helped him to feel apart of the process (since this was his adventure and all).

Wyatt wanted to help too. He got tired of eating his "apples." He turned a few cranks. This really was a family project. (Jeremy got out the big container of sugar for us. That was his contribution. Oh, and he helped clean the kitchen after we were done too.) Here Aidan is adding the strawberry puree to the sugar and pectin. He really liked to say the word "pectin." Again, Wyatt helped.

And here is the fruit of our labors. 8 lbs of strawberries turned into 11 1/2 jars of freezer jam. I would have done the other 8 lbs, but I overestimated how many strawberries I needed, and I ran out of both pectin and jars. I guess I am going to the store tomorrow (perhaps that is tomorrow's "adventure"). I was so proud of Aidan. He really stuck through this project, asking questions at every turn, wanting to know why we did that and how that worked. This was a lot of fun to do. I might have to make "adventures" something we do more often. Aidan and Wyatt really seemed to enjoy it and I had fun watching them learn.

Words of Wyatt #2

When we play Super Mario Brothers, Wyatt likes to copy Luigi's saying, "Imma Back!"

Words of Wyatt #1

One of Wyatt's favorite song is "We Will Rock You" by Queen. He goes around the house singing in his little 2 year old voice, "We will, we will, ROCK YOU!" Only "rock you" sounds more like a dinosaur roar.

Aidanism #1

While playing Wii bowling and Aidan just got 4 strikes in row. . .

Mom: Holy Macaroni, Aidan! Good job!

Aidan: Mom, don't say that!

Mom: (confused) What, good job?

Aidan: No, Holy Macaroni.

Mom: Why not? Holy Macaroni isn't a bad word.

Aidan: But it makes me hungry!

Happy Easter!

Just like every holiday, ours was fun and busy! The Easter bunny visited us Sunday morning, bring all the kids Easter baskets. (I just love putting together the baskets, it is my very favorite part of the holiday!) This year, the Easter bunny also brought us a plastic picnic table with an umbrella. The kids were very excited to have this and have begged me to keep it in the front room for a while. We'll see how many times it takes me to stub my toe or trip over it before I throw it on the porch.
After baskets and some Conference, we loaded up to have lunch and an egg hunt with the Barnes cousins. There were TONS of eggs and everyone got plenty loaded up. I really was wishing Lydia was walking. She would have had muchh more fun if she were. And it was so fun to see the Roberts and the Patterson's. We really miss you guys! Aidan, with "big" cousins, Dillon, Kaleb, and Xander. They helped him load his basket. Wyatt took awhile to get into the swing of things, but eventually he got it. Once he discovered that there was actual candy in the eggs, he was much more eagar to go hunting. Pretty Liddy. She liked to shake the eggs. Her cousin Sam helped her outThe kids and their take. We have lots of candy now!

After dinner and the egg hunt at the Barnes', it was time to head over to the other Grandparent's house for dinner (and even more candy baskets!)Grandpa Arenaz, Dad and Aidan Wyatt and Lydia. They got M&M's in their baskets and were really excited by it.
This morning, before Conference started, Jeremy and I sat down with Aidan with the Gospel Art Kit and explained the real Easter story. We felt that was important because he was completely focused on the Easter bunny and candy and egg hunts. I was shocked at how much he actually knew of the Easter story and resurrection. Plus, it was good for us to have a moment to reflect on the Savior as well.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter weekend. Let's all pray for spring now! I am sure getting antsy for warm weather!

A Room Fit for a Princess

WARNING: PICTURE HEAVY AND DRIPPING WITH CUTENESS! PROCEED WITH CAUTION!

So, I have been wanting to redo my daughter's room, well, ever since she was born. I didn't like the crib bedding we had, etc. I always had an excuse. But I didn't know exactly what I wanted, so Jeremy put the kibosh on that plan until I KNEW what I wanted (he has these crazy ideas on not spending money on things we didn't really need/want-silly boy ;) ). So, I was just trying to be content with what I had until I saw THESE prints on an everyday trip to Target. I finally KNEW what I wanted to do in her room. A princess room for our little Princess! Perfect! And the prints were on sale (double yay!) so I added them to my cart with all sorts of fun ideas swirling around in my head.

The room was already painted this beautiful shade of light pink, so we were set there. These prints went over the changing table (which Jeremy made for me when pregant with Aidan) and the white dresser we already had. Also, the crib is white too. On the other side of the room is her crib, and above the crib we (by we, I mean Jeremy hung them and I told him where to put them) hung 5 small white shelves that we bought at Home Depot (YAY!) On the shelves, are a few porcelin dolls from my childhood, a collection of tiaras (which I intend to add to) some princess books (which I also intend to add to), empty picture frames (which I intend to put pictures in at some point) and some adorable letter blocks spelling out LYDIA that I got from my favorite children's boutique in town. I also covered the Princess word with stick on jewels for a bit of fun. I show you the crib only to point out the beautiful tulle bedskirt. Isn't it sweet and perfect for a princess? And the blanket hanging is a gift for Lydia from my grandma. The window wall. The gauzy curtains were from my sister's wedding. Every princess room MUST have floor length gauze curtains, don't you think? Her bow hanger (yes, I realize that is an obscene number of bows. I don't really care.) I really got into this craft project. I used my Cricut to cut out pink vinyl letters and affixed them to this board hanging with pink and white ribbons for her clips to attach to. I also found this wooden crown, painted it white and hot glued "jewels" to it and used it for a "topper." I made 2 wooden crowns and used the other for. . . This (because I love symetry). I found this matching print (actually, it is a growth chart) on the Target website and I had to have it (it was on sale too-see, this room was totally meant to be!). I embellished it with a ribbon and crown hanger and if you look very closely, you can see that there are "jewels" hanging from the ribbons.Okay, this *might* be my favorite part of the room. After I (well, Jeremy) hung the curtains, I felt that the space above the window was too plain. I had the idea to cut out white vinyl crowns with my Cricut and embellish them with more "jewels". It turned out perfect. It was exactly what that space needed.

And that is Miss Lydia's princess room. Probably my favorite room in the house now (well, I really love my kitchen too.) Thanks for letting me share. So, what do you think? I am particuarly proud of how it turned out. It is even better in person (since I am no photographer) so if you are in the neighborhood, stop by! One last picture-every princess must have a pony, right? Except this pony spends a lot more time in the living room being rode on by the princes who also inhabit this castle.