Princess Olivia for the night.

Last month Matt's niece Oliva got to stay the night with Me and the boys. We decided to help her feel better about her mom leaving her. (she seemed pretty nervous) I thought maybe we could have a movie night and paint her toenails. We went to the store and they all picked out a few treats and we got icecream. She talked the boys into getting Barbie Fairy Secret at the Redbox. (I think the boys were more excited she was actually sleeping over to care about what movie). But just a side note there is something about "Barbie" that just does not appeal to my boys. Mason can get sucked into the TV by almost anything. But barbie was a challenge for him.

The plan was to paint her nails. Mattix really wanted her to soak her feet like a real pedicure. And use all the stuff I use on my feet. Even the foot mask. I think Olivia loved it.

She loved that her feet turned white like a zombie. Mattix and Manning really wanted to do it too. So they got zombie feet too. It was fun.

Olivia acted so grown up. It was cute.

The boys had their turn soaking their feet. Mason was to afraid of his ego to do anything like that. "Boys don't get pedicures mom."

Mattix's zombie feet.

He loved it. He said the mask felt like sand at the lake. He was so funny.

Mason finally wanted to help when we started filing her toenails and using the file. It was so neat to see my boys want to take care of the Princess and pamper her. It made me proud.

I had some cute nail stickers. Olivia doesn't like pink so we did blue.

I think they turned out so cute.

The next day Olivia asked me if she could have a "pedicure for her hands." And because I don't usually get the opportunity to pamper and play pretty I said YES! Than when her's were done she and the boys painted my nails and put stickers on them. I even showed off my beautiful mani the next day church.

I loved our princess night. It was awesome. I don't have any girls yet. So for now I think I will take advantage of the girls I do have in my life. It's nice to have that girl time once in a while.

Forget Not

I am so very grateful for a Heavenly Father that loves me and knows me well enough to put me in the right place at the right time. I am so happy I was able to go to the Relief Society General Conference tonight. I feel like each speaker had something to say to me and answers to some of the tougher prayers pains of my heart.
Dieter F. Uchtdorf's talk was AMAZING. He talked about the flower that everyone seems to overlook, the "forget me not." It's great beauty. Look at it it is beautiful. It's not big and glorious, just small and there. He compared the forget me not to a few things in our lives that so often get overlooked but can be glorious and wonderful when looked at. He said: (In a nutshell.)
~ Forget not to have patience with yourself. ~
God is fully aware that we are not perfect. It is part of our mortal experience to have weaknesses. For weaknesses can be turned to strengths.

~ Forget not the difference between a good sacrifice and a bad sacrifice. ~
Am I committing my time to the things that matter the most?

~ Forget not the "why" of the gospel? ~
Cherish your activity in this great work.

~ Forget not that Heavenly Father Loves you! ~
Know that you are a daughter of God.

This last one reminds me of a quote from my Sunday school lesson last week.
By Dallin H. Oaks: "Consider the power of the idea taught in our beloved song, "I am a child of God...." Here is the answer to one of life's greatest questions, 'who am I? I am a child of God with a spirit lineage to heavenly parents. That parentage defines our eternal potential. That powerful idea is a potent antidepressant. It can strengthen each of us to make righteous choices and to seek the best that is within us. Establish in the mind of a young person that the powerful idea that he or she is a child of God and you have given self-respect and motivation to move against the problems of life."

I know that Heavenly Father loves each and every one of his children. It took me a while to build my own testimony of this, but I know. I have prayed to feel his love and believe me when you are looking for it, it is an amazing feeling to truly feel it. It really makes me sad that so many people reject it. But as I learned tonight we can show charity and reflect the love we feel and pray that others will one day feel it too.
I hope that if you didn't get the chance to see the broadcast tonight, look it up. Watch it, read it or listen to it. You won't be disappointed. I tried to do a link to info on how to do that. Click on it if you are interested.
If you did get to see it I'd love to hear what you thought too. Wasn't it great?

Golfing With Daddy

Matt's brother gave the boys an old set of kid size golf clubs. Let's just say Matt was more than excited to get the boys into golfing. And they were sooo excited to go golfing just like dad.

We took the boys to the park by our house to practice how to hit the ball.

First Matt tried the "driving range" approach.
That was going alright until they started trying to chase the balls and it was not very safe. Eventually I pointed them in different directions so they wouldn't hit each other with the club or the ball.

They each got their own mini lesson on how to hold the club and the right way to hit the ball. No hockey or Tball hits.

Manning being the ball lover he is and the fact that he wants to be 5X's bigger than he is LOVED every minute of this adventure.

He sure makes a cute golfer.

Doesn't he?

Mason is very technical. If daddy said hold it a certain way he had to do it just that way.

But for some reason he kept wacking that ball like he was going to kill it but killed the grass most of the time.

But sure got excited when he did hit the ball. :)

Mattix is our natural. He has his own way to hit the ball it worked and that is how he is going to do it.

And he's pretty good at hitting it.

Watch out Tiger.

Just don't try to correct his technique. :(

And when you can't find your ball, your club comes in handy as a nice stick horse to ride as you are searching all over for the little white dot over to the right.

It's all fun and games until someone says let's get ready to go home.

Can't leave out pics of the pro himself.

I love this guy. I love that he likes to teach the boys the things he loves. I think he likes it too.

Mattix's First Day

Mattix started preschool on Wednesday. He gets to go to Mrs. Sandy's preschool just like Mason. I like the idea of him getting the experience of being away from me and being taught by someone else. So when he does start kindergarten he will be good and ready.

He had been so excited to get to go the whole way to school that morning Mason was preparing him and going over songs he might sing and toys he might get to play with. But the second we got out of the van he looked at Mason and said "come with me." He turned very shy and nervous. He wouldn't even let me take his picture. The mommy bear in me wanted to scoop him up and take him home. "We could try again next week.
"

But a couple minutes later his buddy Colby pulled up got out and they were so happy to see each other. Colby says to Mattix, "let go inside Mattix." Just like that he turned and walked right in. Yay! We love Colby! Thanks for making his first day so much easier. What are buddies for?

I picked him up and he was wearing a big smile and this on his shirt.
I'm so proud of him. He did survive.

And Sandy said he did awesome. He can't wait to go tomorrow.

Simple blessings

I am still smiling about this, so I thought what a better way to make myself smile again than to blog about it and than I can read it again and again. :)
Today is fast Sunday. It's been hard for me to get into the habit of fasting. (let alone just doing it. No habits about it) Especially since I have spent the last 6 years being prego or nursing one of my babies. But I decided that I can do this I really wanted to give it a shot. Prove to myself that I can do this. It's nice when you can get up, run out of time getting ready, and go to church that makes the morning go smooth. But today I taught sunday school. (we teach the 14-18 year olds.) And I am a major emotional eater. I was a little nervous. All I could think of was food. Especially chocolate. I said a prayer in my heart during sacrament while I was watching the boys eat Applejacks that I could have the strength to think of something else. On the way to class I stopped at the library to pick up markers for the board. I was walking with one of the girls in the class. She was saying how hungry she was. I told her that if it wasn't fast Sunday I would of brought everyone chocolate. Because I could use some today to get my nerves through class.
I got to class and opened the bag. I pulled out a marker and I glanced at it, it was a regular marker. Not for dry erase boards. I pulled out the other one while look at the first one. I read the label it said "scented." Of course I had to smell it. Guess what? It smelled just like chocolate! Awesome! Heavenly father does love me. He knew I was trying so hard and sent me a little reminder that I am stronger than I think. Funny huh! Maybe I am reading to much into it.
But it was sure fun to reward the kids in my class with a wiff of the chocolate marker when they read or answered a question.

Mason's officially a Kindergartener

It's weird and very exciting to think that I am the mom to someone old enough to be in school. But I sure am proud of my kindergartener.
On his first day I was a mess. We were running late, my camera pooped out on me, (so all I got was two pictures I sent to daddy on my phone) and if it weren't for the first day talk the teachers and people in charge gave we would of been late for school too.
But despite the stressful mess I was that day I managed to create some great memories for both of us. I promised him I would take him on a lunch date before school. Even though it was a shove your lunch down your throat kind of lunch date we did it! And he was so happy that we were doing something special with his brothers to celebrate his special day.

My big boy in his uniform ready for school. He certainly looks like he's ready to learn.

Matt spoiled me rotten with an early birthday present and bought me a new camera. So we got 3rd day of school pictures. :) He loves his new Pokemon backpack.

His brothers love to walk him to kindergarten.

He even lets Manning stand in line with him.

I love that he's making new friends and learning so much already. Kindergarten is going to be great for him.

And this is what happens though the minute Mason walks into the school without us. Manning calls out for him and says "Mayon where are wyou?"

It totally breaks my heart.

But it does confirm though, My boys really do love each other.

Manning's secret recipe.

I was making lunch the other day and making everyone turkey sandwiches. Manning was set on having a peanut butter and jelly. That was fine with me. While I was making it he was helping me spread the stuff in it. Well he insisted on having a piece of lettuce in it too.

Looks yummy doesn't it?

He tasted it.....

Than decided it tasted better without the lettuce.