Thanksgiving 2012

Happy Thanksgiving! We had a quiet one this year. Just my little family and I loved it. The kids scoured the yard for leaves to decorate the table while I piddled around getting things ready. I have to say it was very nice not worrying about being on schedule since we only had us to worry about.

 I used the timer on the camera to get the following picture-it was right before we ate a delicious dinner.

 Time for pie...

 Karli really liked her first taste of pumpkin pie. She ate the entire thing!

 We missed you all, but we are grateful to know we have so many people out there who love us. Happy Thanksgiving!

Red Lipstick

I've always loved red lipstick-on other women. I've never believed that I could wear it. I've always felt like I'd just look silly. Like a little girl that got into her mother's make-up and is playing dress up, and that everyone would look at me and silently laugh. I've felt that way about a lot of things. That if I try to do my make-up a certain way or dress a certain way that I would look like a clown. You see, I'm not what the world would think is a stunning beauty, and I've let myself get to the point that I think I need to match the world's definition of beauty. Recently, I've really felt down and I've caught myself thinking very unflattering thoughts about how I look. I've really been struggling to lose the weight I put on after Karli was born and I'm not really getting anywhere and I've been beating myself up about it. I look at the women around me, and I see them all as being a hundred times prettier and better dressed and more desirable than I am. But then, I decided to look deeper. I thought about my mom and why she is one of the most beautiful women I know. Does she spend countless hours and money at salons and gyms and spas trying to match the world's definition of beauty? Of course not. She's too good for that. It's the way she sacrifices for her children or the way that her eyes light up when she bears her testimony that makes her one of the most beautiful women I've ever known. Or my sisters, who are truly beautiful in every way. They give and give to their kids and husbands and don't complain. When they laugh through their tears, or smile while their hearts are breaking, they remind me of what is really beautiful and it carries over into them. Somehow they are strong and confident as well as gentle and Christ-like at the same time. THEY are beautiful. I think about the many friends I have, that have been there for me and every one of them is beautiful. Would they win a Miss America pageant? Probably not. But is that really what's important? One of the things that all these women have in common is that they do not just give up. They don't crawl under a rock and never get dressed or hide under their blankets all day. So I'm not going to either. And I'm going to stop caring about what the world thinks. I'm never going to win a beauty pageant because I'm not going to enter. Ever. I don't want to compete. I am, however, going to wear red lipstick. I don't care if I look silly because I like it. I don't care if my clothes are way past the size I want them to be, because I love my children and the extra time I spend with them instead of working out is time well spent. I am going to be me, and I am going to learn to love the way I look because I don't want my children to grow up and think they have to strive for the world's definition of beauty. I want them to see their mother as a strong, confident and happy woman and they're not going to be able to if I continue to beat myself up. So, here I am in my new red lipstick. Take that world!

 

 

Ponytail!

I know my kids have a ton of hair, but I'm still amazed that my nine-month-old can sport a ponytail!

Something cool?!

There I was relaxing in my bathtub full of hot water, when the door flings open and in comes Corbin. I started to tell him to head on back out, but he shut me down with a loud yell, "I gotta go potty Mom, don't tell me to go back out. Tell me to go potty." So, I pulled the curtain and went back to reading my book. After a few minutes, Corbin pipes up "Hey Mom, wanna see something cool? Come look and then I will flush and it will go away."

"Corbin, I don't want to look at your poop okay, just go ahead and flush it."

"But Mom, that's why it's cool. I put the white on top and now you can't see the poop! Come see!"

"Corbin, I really don't want to, but thanks for wanting to share."

"Okay Mom, but you'll be sorry, it's really something cool."

Flush.

And there went my opportunity to see "something cool".

We had fun today...

 

 

 

 

 

 

And today I added "Kitchen-Aid" to our grateful tree, because it is soooo incredibly easy to make cookies! Ohhhh, let the baking season begin!

Grateful Tree

We got this idea from Aunt Bess. I cut out the tree and then we cut out a whole bunch of leaves so that we can add to them throughout the month. We just write something that we are grateful for on a leaf and then place the leaf on the tree. Corbin had a hard time with it because he thought he should just write his name and then put the leaf on the tree and to continue to do just that until the tree had enough leaves. That's why his first leaf said "letters". Mia's was "Music and Singing", Karli "Cheerios", Chase's "Mom", Dad "Family" and mine talked about having a worthy priesthood holder in the home to give blessings when needed. I still can't stop being grateful that Denver was here and able to give me a blessing on Halloween when I was so sick. I didn't think I could take it for another second and when he came in the bedroom to ask if I needed anything I knew exactly what I needed. Without that blessing, I'm not sure what I would have done, but the comfort and relief that it brought me was instantaneous. We are so truly blessed to have the Gospel in our lives and the power of the priesthood restored to us here on Earth in these times. Our Heavenly Father loves us so much and has so much to give us if we would only let Him. I know that The Dalton Grateful Tree has already reminded me of how blessed I am personally, and I hope to keep up with it this month and help my kids to see how blessed they are as well. So thank you Aunt Bess for being so smart and sharing such great ideas with the rest of us. Maybe you should swing by and see our tree in person...

Happy Halloween

I love Halloween. My kids are just getting to the age where they really get into it. We've had a ton of fun making decorations and getting ready and even making the costumes. Since the littles are still young enough to be open to suggestion when it comes to picking a costume-we had a themed costume for the whole family. Welcome to Dalton Zoo!

You can't see our name tags, but mine says Head Zookeeper and Denver's says Assistant Zookeeper.



The elephant.

A tiger princess and a zebra.

A Mac Daddy Zebra. One that makes stripes look cool...

Another zebra? Oh wait, just mommy messing around with Daddy and snapping pictures while he's too busy to protest.

"Rrrrrroooaaaaaalll"

We went to our ward's trunk-or-treat and I have to say that Mia's costume was a huuuuge hit. It's either that or the precocious little way she'd walk up to a car, tilt her head, put on her most bewitching smile, and then politely say, "Trick-or-Treat". People just couldn't resist and kept giving her candy. On the way home, we were considering taking the kids to a few houses around the neighborhood but then I got sick. Quite sick. And it was before I'd even eaten a piece of candy. Still, the kids had a ton of fun and Corbin loved handing out candy to the few trick-or-treaters that we had. Can't wait for next year!

Pumpkin patch fail

I was so excited to go get pumpkins this year. I finally felt ready to attempt a pumkin patch with the kids. Every other year it just hadn't worked out but I was determined to do it this year. Silly me. I checked the forecast and so I was expecting rain, but I wasn't going to let it stop me. Unfortunately, the kids didn't get the memo because they were cranky. That and it seems every other family in Oregon had the same plan to go on the day we did because the first place we stopped at was so full we couldn't even park. When we left the house, the skies were a light gray and there was no rain. By the time we got to the farm, it was pouring, the kids were already miserable and I decided we'd just choose a pumpkin from the ones they had out front. Maybe we'll make it next year...

Of course they were fighting over who got to hold the umbrella.

Chase was trying so hard to get the other kids to smile for the picture, but this is the best we got. At least they're not screaming like they were in the other ones.

We had to put Mia in time-out in the truck twice because she kept running off. I'm sure all the other patrons enjoyed watching me struggle with her kicking and screaming into the truck both times. Still, she did settle down long enough to pick out a pumpkin and I managed to load the little kids into the truck while Denver and Chase paid for the pumpkins. I snapped some pictures of the kids on the way home and I think they adequately illustrate what the trip was like.

 Once we got home, I dragged the kids off to bed for naps. And when they woke up, they had transformed into happy, docile creatures and the pumpking carving was actually an enjoyable experience. In addition to having fun jack-o-lanterns, I had a new tool that helped the kids behave for the rest of the month because I was able to remind the kids that only those who behaved would be able to light their pumpkins that night.

 

 

 

 

Can't wait to see what next year brings!