What He Sees

Mattix took this picture of me the other day while we were driving in the car. My first instinct whenever I get my picture taken is to look at it and 98% of the time, I find the picture I see to be to fat, to ugly, my hair out of place, or I am just plain looking goofy.
He was playing with my camera told me to look at him and smile. (with my teeth he said.) He took the picture and sat and looked at it. I asked him if I could see. He said "mom don't erase it. I like this picture mom. You look so beautiful and I like looking at it."
Well as you can see I didn't erase it. Dispite the fact that I can see so many flaws in it. He is so sweet. I love my boys. I know that they genuinely love me for me. I just wish I could always see myself the way they see me.

Random thoughts~

Today was our second day at our new ward. I am happy to report, it was a very good experience. Last week I was a little worried. Mattix had a hard time understanding why his old Primary teacher wasn't at church. And why Craigy and Colby forgot to come to church. He had a melt down. I had to sit with him through the last hour of church. But this week he went and made it through the whole 3 hours.
Mason of course he's my social butterfly he loves it. He's already made new friends and doesn't mind that his old friends aren't here because in his head he's planning many a play dates with everyone. So friends of Mason be prepared. We would love to have play dates with you.
Last week was awkward. I felt like the one on the back row that was there to observe. I didn't really talk to many. (My own fault) So I went home with a unsure feeling. Well I prayed very hard that night. While I was laying in my bed feeling very homesick. I went to RS with my Copperhill 9th friends Tuesday that didn't help my feelings of where do I belong and homesickness. Well this is going to sound weird and I didn't realize this until this afternoon. But Wednesday night came an answer to my prayers. The bishop called and asked Matt and I to speak in Sacrament today. I was mortified. I don't know what it was about speaking in our new ward. But I was scared. I just spoke in our old ward. And seriously didn't feel this scared. Luckly because we did just speak we had premade talks. (awesome) I did tweek it a bit to fit how I felt the spirit would like me to deliver the talk. I got up there. Praying as hard as I could in my heart to have the spirit speak through me. And it worked. I said things and found myself saying things I knew were true and that I needed to hear myself say. I spoke on "Enduring." I meant so much to me to hear my own words again but more strong this time. But to me the big answer to my prayers came afterward, when so many people came up to me and introduced themselves, talked to me and made me feel so welcome. I needed that and fortunately it took public speaking to bless me in so many ways.
I can honestly say I know that Matt and I are where we need to be right now. I have alot to contribute to this ward and I will learn alot from them. I do miss my friends and my "normal." But I know that everyday is a new opportunity to make this my new normal.
"We must never give up, for we are laying the foundations of a great work. That "great work" is ourselves--our lives, our future, the very fulfillment of our dreams. That great work is what with, great effort and patience and God's help, we can become. When days are difficult or problems seem unending, we must stay in the harness and keep pulling. We are entitled to "eat the good of the land of Zion in these last days," but it will require that we stay at our post and keep trying."

Jeffery R. Holland, However Long and Hard the road

Surprise visit :)

Mattix kept looking at her and saying "she's so tute"

Sorry it's so blurry.
Manning's just happy to have Jimmy here to get into trouble with.

All bundled up, ready to go. Isn't she so cute?

Mason finally got to hold her. He was so excited he ran to wash his hands first.

One of the cool things about living with Nana and Papa is that when people come to surprise visit them we can feel like they are surprising us too. :)
Jimmy and Nadia brought our new cousin to see us. We finally got to meet Miss Brenda Ann. I just love her. And of course the boys do too. We've been looking at pictures for the last two week now. I've been waiting for my turn to hold her. Yeah I got to! She's so tiny and cute. I realized how much my boys have grown. And my baby isn't a "baby" anymore. :(
It was so great to see them. I loved hearing the new baby cry. It's so much more cute and fun to hear than the 1 year old shreeking cry.
Thanks Jimmy and Nadia you made our day. (And Nana's too! :) )

Let's go fly a kite.

The other day when it was so very windy the neighbor kids were out flying kites. Mason really badly wanted to fly a kite too. Unfortunately we didn't have a kite to fly. So me and my amazing crafty skills pulled out the string, some paper and some crepe paper. We tried some creative designs that didn't seem to work. But after a couple failed attempts a good old fashioned diamond shaped kite with straw criss cross sticks taped on surprisingly flew like a real kite. It was pretty awesome. I felt like a "cool mom" that night. And the neighbor kids thought that it was pretty awesome too.

Mattix's new bike!

We decided with the money we earned from our moving sale that we were going to buy a flat screen t.v. We took the money to the store and was planning on checking them out. The boys have been eyeing the bikes for sometime. Matt decided the t.v. wasn't that important. We took the boys to the store later and let them pick out their bikes. Let's just say they were more than happy. Mattix Loves his bike he picked a red (his favorite color) motorcycle bike. He looks pretty good on it.

He picked out a helmet that came with a bell. He is mighty proud of that bell.

He just loves to ride his bike. He's not even that upset when he crashes. He jumps back on and gets going again. I love to see his face when he rides his bike. I think we made a good choice.
With all this yucky weather there hasn't been to many opportunities to ride bikes. I haven't gotten any of Mason on his yet. Those are to come.

Did you wear GREEN??

A little late but I finally found my camera from the move. I never blogged about St. Patrick's Day.
I love St. Patrick's day. For the past few years, now that the boys are older and I am teaching preschool we've had a leprechaun come and visit our house. He always leaves green foot prints around the house and usually leaves chocolate gold coins too. This year he left a little hunt with clues 1-5 to tricking a Leprechaun into giving you his pot of gold. The kids loved it.

Last year the leprechaun played a trick on us and changed our milk green. This really upset the boys so he set out the milk and left us his magic drops to change it if we wanted to. They of coarse wanted to probably because it was their idea. And he left us all the stuff to make our own green cupcakes which we made with our preschool friends.

The day before Mason had made some St. Patrick's day pictures and decorations at his school and the leprechaun dumped them out of his backpack and used them to hide the clues.

We were all sporting our green and we had some yummy green treats.

We found the pot of gold.

Manning got a little carried away with the green frosting.

We put on our leprechaun hats danced and ate leprechaun treats. We were successful in tricking the leprechaun.

We found the rainbow and sure enough at the end of it was the pot of gold. And boy was it yummy!

Before and After

I decided a few weeks ago that I needed a change. With all the "change" going on in our life right now I guess I just wanted some change that I could personally control. I cut almost 9 inches off. I was thinking of donating it but that 1 inch seemed to much when it came down to it.
I also decided to die my hair back to a more blonde color. I kind of miss my long pretty hair. But I'm loving the newness of my new do.