Motherhood

Tonight was our wards Relief Society birthday dinner.  I sat with a few girls I don't know much about and we got to talking.  One of them was asking a lot of questions about motherhood and things that go with it. It really got me thinking about my life as a mother and how much I absolutely love it.  Even though after we came home and I was getting the girls ready for a bath Mary decided to poop all over her bedroom floor.  I looked at it, I sighed, and then I just laughed.  I still absolutely love it even in these moments.  I was still left with this wonderful feeling of gratitude for motherhood.
There have been many people who ask, "What do you do all day?"  Let me tell you what I do all day.  I make meals, I wipe bums, I do little girl's hair, I dress them, I clean, I play, I sing, I dance, I build, I color, I act silly, I kiss and hug, I read countless stories, I go on walks, I teach, I play make believe, I snuggle, I rock, I bathe, I brush teeth, I run, I spin, I do ballerina jumps (not really because I was never a ballerina, but I pretend), I help, I fill sippy cups, I bake, I discipline, I read scriptures, I help them pray, I tuck them in, I wipe their noses, I dry their tears, I make hopscotches, I push them on the swing, I love.  I find joy in the little things I do.
To steal a line from one of our favorite books, I love them through and through.  Yesterday, today, and tomorrow too.  There are many things you take on when you're a mother, but most of all you love.  I absolutely love being a mother.  I have never felt more joy in my life.  There are times when I am overwhelmed with the love and joy I feel looking at my children.  Being a wife and a mother is all I really wanted to be.  I am so blessed to be able to do what I do.
There is such a sweet spirit that accompanies motherhood.  I experience countless sweet sweet moments through out my days.  Avery singing a song she's learning in primary.  When Mary sees her dad coming home from school and she starts crazy laughing and saying Daddy over and over.  Every night when the three of us snuggle on the rocking chair and I read them books and sing them songs.  Every night when I'm tucking Avery into bed and she asks if I want to snuggle.  The dozens of times a day when Mary cuddles up to me and asks me to sing Child of God.  Avery throwing some books into Mary's crib after she's woken up, then climbing in and them reading together.
Each of these sweet moments fill me with love and make me think of our loving Heavenly Father who has blessed me with these sweet children.  In these moments I am able to feel the love that Heavenly Father has for them.  There are also many bad moments that come with being a mom, but they are overshadowed by all the good and I wouldn't trade being a stay at home mom for anything.
I am blessed to be able to be a mother in this earthly life.  I am blessed to get to watch these two amazing girls grow up and to get to teach them along the way.  I am blessed to feel this love for them.  I am so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who has blessed me with these two sweet children and am so grateful for the trust He has in me to raise them.

I am not much of a writer, but I really wanted to write down how much I love doing what I do.  

I love being a mom.  

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Idaho Falls Time Out for Women

Last weekend Alisha and I drove up to Idaho Falls to attend Time Out for Women with Amy.  I had wanted to go since my sister Charissa went and had a very good experience.  If you don't know what TOFW is I'll try to explain it.  You go for a two day conference that is filled with different speakers, musical performers, and the spirit.  It was very uplifting and a nice break from the regular routine.  I gathered a lot from the two days and I'm going to share a few of my favorites.
#1:  Everything said and sung by Mercy River.
#2:  The Lord calls you to serve others.  It may not be convenient.  Serve willingly not out of obligation.    Help smooth the road for others.
#3:  Love for love's sake
#4:  What you do in your circle of influence will have a profound impact.
#5:  Fill your "lamp" (heart) with truth.  Receive that truth and take it into your hearts.  There is no greater truth than knowing I am a daughter of God who loves me.
#6:  Instead of thinking compliments, actually say them.  Even if it's a stranger.   (I've been trying to implement this)  You can turn a heart with the words you say.
#7:  Heavenly Father gave your kids to you because YOU are who they need.  They need your gifts.
#8:  You can hope for other things while you wait for your miracles.  There's a lot of pain in waiting, but Heavenly Father gives us hope through it.
#9:  This one is from Merrilee Boyack, my favorite speaker from the weekend.

• Embrace our kids uniqueness.  What makes them special?
• Explore new gifts and talents as well as develop existing ones.  Help our children with this.
• Encourage our children's growth and celebrate their journey.  Feed them living water day after day and they will thrive.

#10:  Mercy, is not getting what you deserve.  Grace, is getting what you don't deserve.

#11:  See yourself as your children see you.  Beautiful.  Compliment yourself in front of them.  Teach them that they are beautiful to our Heavenly Father and that's what matters.  It made me think of Veggietales:  A Snoodle's Tale.

#12:  Find your sass!  

S-Search

A-Act

S-Savor

S-Share

Search for God, build a relationship with Him of trust and love.  Act on His atonement.  It's not only for when you do something wrong, but when you've been wronged too.  It's for comfort.  The atonement is a gift and we should use it.  Savor your relationship with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.  Savor your blessings from them.  Share His gifts.  We all have unique gifts.  Share them.

#13:  When you make a mistake you start over and do better.  

I took a small notebook with me and filled 12 pages with notes.  So this is just a snippet of the notes I took.  I plan on reading through them several times so I can remember those things I want to implement into my life and be better at.  

It was a really good weekend and I had a good time with Alisha and Amy.  I hope to be able to go again. 

Of course right when we arrived in Idaho Falls I was already missing Louis and the girls.  I am a homebody and really just prefer being at home surrounded by my family.  I did have a great time, but was very happy to come home Saturday night!  My family was happy to see me too.

St. Patrick's Day Fun

The Friday before St. Patrick's day Avery and I headed over to do some fun activities with Megan and her kids.  Avery was so excited that whole week!  Every single day she kept asking if it was Friday and if we were going to Tafton and Kaela's yet.  It was one of those things I probably shouldn't have told her until the night before.  When we got there I started out by reading some St Patrick day books to them.  One was about the history of St. Patrick, why we celebrate him, why a clover is associated with it, what leprechauns are, and different things like that.  The second one was just a fun one.

Here is Avery trying to keep her eyes open because if you blink leprechaun's will disappear! 

After the book we did some worksheets.  I found one online at education.com and I made the other.  The one I made was a rainbow, each color had five circles in it and they had jellybeans and were able to match the color of the jellybean with each color of the rainbow.  (Does that make sense?)  Megan also had several laminated worksheets/activities for them to do, and she had also printed off a shamrock and ripped up some green paper to glue onto the shamrock.  While they were doing these worksheets/activities they also had a green snack to eat!  Green grapes and green apples.  

After they were done with this we had a super fun leprechaun gold hunt!  We found a shamrock of each color of the rainbow and that led us to the gold!  Even better it was chocolate gold!  It was so fun and we all enjoyed it!  Especially eating the chocolate gold part.  After that we headed back to Louis and Mary.  We had lots of fun and it got Avery so excited for St. Patrick's day!

All About Avery

Avery:  

was born November 22

she is 3 years old

The Brandley smile Dad?

Avery's Personality:

Avery is FULL of energy.  She goes goes goes.  Several times I've had people say, "I wish I had that much energy!"  Personally I wouldn't want it.  I'd need to take several naps through out the day.

Avery is loving, she is always willing to share her snacks.  Toys are another story.  

She has started to be so polite and kind!  She is wonderful!  

People have said that the threes are worse then twos, that hasn't been so for us.  Yet.

Avery Loves:  

Avery loves learning.  Since she was a baby she has picked up on things so quickly.  She is a sponge.  

Recently she has learned the entire ASL alphabet on her own.  I printed and laminated an ASL alphabet diagram and she learned it just from looking at that  and confirming with me that she was doing it right.  

She is constantly doing letters.  The only ones she can't do are K, Q, and R.  She knows them, she just can't get her fingers to do them.  

Spelling Avery, I helped with the R.

She also continues to love reading.

Avery has been doing self portraits the last few months and they are awesome!  

She draws some everyday and will tell me, "this one is for Isaac!"  "This one is for LynnDee!" etc.

My very favorite self portrait, snowman Avery!

Her favorite food is applesauce, rice krispies, and pretzels.  Plus anything chocolate.

Avery loves playing with her princesses.  She also likes dressing up as a princess.

Avery loves her baby.  Her baby is Mary.  She is so great to her and always has been.  Avery brings things to Mary when she needs them, she shares with her, she makes her laugh all the time.  My current favorite game that they play is running back and forth from the front door to the kitchen laughing the entire time.

  I hope I can help them to keep their wonderful relationship.  

Avery Knows:

Where to start?  I mentioned before that Avery has always loved to learn.

The last several months she has been learning to write letters and numbers.  She does so well!

I am a proud mom! 

The first letter she ever wrote about a month before her 3rd birthday.

She is also starting to draw some shapes.  

Things Avery Can Do:  

Avery can open the fridge.  That's not always a good thing.

Avery brushes her own teeth and does a really good job.  

I still do it every few days to remind her the things she needs to do.

Avery gets herself dressed and undressed.  

She sometimes picks out her own clothes too. 

Avery is starting to learn to pump her legs on the swings.  

Avery puts her own dishes away in the dishwasher and she also starts the dishwasher for us.

Avery's favorite chore is mopping the kitchen and taking out the bathroom trash.

Avery has figured out how to put her own jacket on without it ending up upside down.

Avery is the most wonderful girl I know.  She is cute, loving, silly, kind and polite.  

We love her so much, she brings so much love into our home.

To read the "All About Mary" post, click here.

A Night in Italy

For those that don't know, my parents are currently serving a mission in Italy.  Louis and I have been saving money from each pay check to go visit them in September.  The last little while Louis has been thinking that we should save the money we have been saving for a down payment on a house later this year after he gets a job and we know where we'll be.  We've been talking about it and prayed about it and we decided not to go to Italy.  :( Since we were no longer going to Italy I planned a date last Friday for an Italian themed night.  

When Louis started talking about not going I got an idea to do an Italian themed date night.  Once it was decided we weren't going I quickly planned a date.  I searched on Pinterest and found a cute invitation to give to Louis along with a great date night plan from the Dating Divas website here.

I found an Italian music playlist on You Tube and had it playing.  I cooked lasagna, garlic bread sticks, and carrots.  I also bought some cannolis from a local pastry shop.  We had our delicious dinner then moved onto the cultural part of our night.  We made play dough sculptures of each other.  It was funny, we had a good time.  

We're on a beach.  Louis got really sunburned.

We went and got the kids from the baby sitter and put them to bed and finished the night by watching The Italian Job.  The only "Italian" movie we own.  It is a great one!  

Louis and I had a great night in Italy.  We wish we could visit my parents and can't wait to see them when they get home in the Summer of 2015!