Paige and Wally!!!!!

The best part of our Valentine's Day I couldn't talk about until today, because I had to wait until all of the appropriate people were in the know. Late Valentine's Day evening Paige and her boyfriend Wally stopped by unexpectedly for a visit and announced that they are engaged!! I cannot be more excited/thrilled/proud for Paige! Wally is an amazing guy, and I'm so grateful that he knows what an amazing girl Paige is! Their wedding date is set for August 5th in the Manti Temple.

(They wanted me to stand in the picture. Don't know why - I look like a doofus, but whatever!)

To know a bit more about my sweet sister Paige and what has made her so amazing, you can read more about her on past blog posts: (I don't know how to make a link, so I'm telling you where/when you can find them!) October/November 2009, and August 2010. You'll see what I mean.

Congrats, guys! We're so excited to have you in our family, Wally! :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

I had so much fun with Valentine's Day this year. I've had it in my mind how I wanted to do Valentine's Day for a while, but I haven't had kids old enough to do much. So this year, I finally had some fun with it. I made a special Valentine's Day breakfast for Aiva, complete with pink heart-shaped pancakes with strawberries and bananas. She thought it was pretty cool. Then Aiva got to take Valentines to her friends at preschool.

Sorry, this picture is blurry. I made a special Valentine's Day dinner for my family. The menu:

Miso soup (my step-dad is Japanese, and he has us hooked!)

Linguine with Silky Mushroom Sauce (YUM!! It's healthy, too. :)

Steamed Broccoli

Sparkling red grape juice, complete with goblets. Aiva enjoyed having "cheers" every minute or so.

And, if you look closely, Aiva was dressed up for the occasion.

Then Mike took Aiva out on a daddy-daughter date to the movies. To "pick Aiva up" for their date, he snuck around to the front door and rang the doorbell. When Aiva answered, he was standing there with a red rose, just for her. Aiva was enthralled, and loved their date.

The reason we do such an "unromantic" Valentine's Day is that our anniversary is at the beginning of March, so our anniversary seems very anti-climatic if we celebrate V-day. So we've decided to make it fun, and all about the kids. In the future, Mike will take the girls out, and I will take the boys out, if we happen to have any! :)

Hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's Day!

{the messies}

I guess I just don't have my stuff together. I think I ask for help from "the moms" more often than anyone I've ever seen. And for this, I appologize to all of you! I guess that I just figure that for every problem that I have, the answer is out there in one of your brains. So this is another one of my "pick your brains" post.

I have debated for a while on posting about this, because it would have to begin with an embarassing admission. I think this is an issue for many of us, but it's hard to admit it "publicly." Here it is: I am . . . not a clean person. I'm not a DIRTY person either, but keeping a clean home does NOT come second nature to me. I remember when Aiva was a baby I had a good schedule down and my house was quite tidy almost all of the time, and I thought to myself, "MAN, I am good at this MOM-STUFF!" And then . . . baby #2 came. I feel so incredibly overwhelmed. I cannot stay on top of the house. I feel like I could go around and around in circles all day long, and the mess would reproduce the second I turn my back on a clean room. If I decide to take it easy for a day, it looks like a bomb has gone off in my house. Not kidding. Come over on a Monday morning after I've taken Sunday "off."

I think to stay on top of it all I would have to be cleaning sun-up until sun-down. But I can't do that. I'm just being honest here, ladies. I'm coming out of the messy closet! I'm admitting it - I need help! I need to play with my kids. I need time to eat. I need to have my daily devotional time. I want to make time to exersize. I need to craft every now and then!! I've decided that I really, really need a cleaning schedule to keep me on track.

I need the feeling of peace that a clean home provides. I know that the Spirit is always stronger when you aren't hankered down with clutter. I want to feel pride in knowing that I can be a good steward over what is mine.

So . . . I know that a lot of moms struggle with keeping on top of the mess when you have children. But I also figure that there's a few of you out there for whom cleaning house comes more naturally. I'm not saying that your house is "PERFECT". What I am saying is that your house has that general "feeling" of cleanliness most of the time, even when it is a bit cluttered. So I'm asking: What are your secrets??? Do you have a schedule? What is it??? Do you have a magic fairy I can borrow???

So now I'm a bit embarassed, especially because I'm sure now everyone in my ward that reads this is going to stop by on Monday just to get a peek at Sister Cole's messy house. Again . . . I'm not a complete slob. But it's a struggle for me. I'm trying so hard to be a clean person. But I need a system. I need to organize my life to organize my home. If you have a system . . . please share. :)

Obsession

I know it's still {very, very cold} February, but I have been hit with a major case of Spring Fever. As such, I have been looking at the possibility of sewing some Spring/Summer dresses for my girls. Aiva is a funny little person. She's a high-energy tomboy {always pulling her bows out, won't wear shoes} but she HATES wearing jeans, as they are too restricting, and much prefers dresses. So I need to get a collection started for the coming warmer weather.

Anyway, in a stroke of luck as I was browsing looking at ideas for dresses, I came across this absolutely AMAZING photographer: www.karamayphotography.com/blog. Boutique clothing designers from all over send her their stuff and she photographs her beautiful little daughter wearing them. But I have FALLEN IN LOVE with so many of the dresses she has featured, and I am plotting at how to duplicate many of them, as I simply can't afford the boutique prices.

Here are several that have me drooling:

Oh. My. Gosh. Gorgeous.

by Zozobug Baby

I LOVE the sleeves!!!!! I will be making something with sleeves like this.

from www.etsy.com/shop/PalmTreePrincess

This picture was on the blog, but the website had been taken down. Oh, so cute, though!!

GASP!! I HAVE to make a pettiskirt like this to peek out from under stuff!!!

The dress on the left is made from a man's white button-up shirt! And I LOVE the style on the right!

This and the pettiskirt above are found at:

www.etsy.com/shop/TheMeasure

www.etsy.com/shop/KateEmersonDesigns

Both above are

www.etsy.com/shop/elizakatedesigns

The real reason I posted these is to get a good collection of photos for myself to look at at a glance, instead of having to go back forever into her archives to keep the ideas in my head.

And here's a little secret: I have actually never followed a sewing pattern before. Gulp. Here goes.

First Day of Preschool!

Last week, we made the sudden decision to finally put Aiva in preschool in the middle of the school year. I had tried doing preschool at home, but kids don't take to learning from Mom as well as they do from someone else sometimes. Plus, I think sometimes this energetic little girl just gets plain old bored. So we found a lady nearby that had excellent prices and open enrollment, and today was Aiva's first day of preschool!

I can't believe how big my little girl is. I had to pry a good-bye out of her when I left, and yes, I shed a few tears driving away. But I have to say that I think this will be such a good thing for her. She LOVED it. The teacher said she joined right in, and you'd never know it was her first day. Now begins the next 20 years of her life in school. I'm excited for her.

Interestingly enough, though, since we got home from St. George (pictures on the post below), she's been (almost) an angel. She just really goes through these phases where she tests every boundary, and tries to find cracks in our resolve. Sigh.

I Love St. George

It's so hard to leave St. George to come home when you're going from 60 and sunny to, well, gray and cold and yuck. Following are photos of our trip to St. George this last week.

I don't think I've mentioned our newest love - our Toyota Sienna. We are the proud owners of a Swagger Wagon, and I'm in love. This was our first major trip with it, and it made travel SO nice! Aiva loves her movies and her popcorn!!

Sigh . . . sniff . . . The Park. I miss you.

Having a fit. Burying her head in the couch and sobbing into it.

Emma is a momma's girl if there ever was one. She was with Daddy (whom she really does love to death, but if she'll feeling the slightest bit off, only Mom will do) and not having it. Being in unfamiliar territory made her very clingy for our entire trip. I just thought these were funny.

Grandma Margaret would sit Emma in the neighboring sink while she did dishes. I have GOT to try this at home!

Tuacahn. Last year for Mother's/Father's Day, we all pitched in and bought Larry and Margaret a brick at Tuacahn with their name on it, and tickets to 2 shows there. We went up on Sunday to go see their new brick! (If noone has ever seen a show at Tuacahn, it's AMAZING. We saw Les Miserables there a few years back, and it was absolutely indescribable!)

My cute girls.

I'm SOOOOO ready for Spring to get here! It was like getting a taste of something delicious and then going back to eating bland, tasteless sand. I hate January in Northern Utah. Who's with me??????

Creative Discipline Ideas???

Hi there! Okay, I need some more parenting advice. I am the first to admit that I am not a professional mom yet, and I can't do this all by myself! When I'm at a loss, I turn to all you other moms out there.

So my latest struggle has been with my sweet/stubborn 3-year-old. She can be the nicest, sweetest little thing one minute, and the next minute she is crazed, defiant preschooler. I don't know if this is normal for most 3-year-olds (this is my first time with one, after all), but seriously, she has THE WORST tantrums! The biggest issue is when we ask her to do anything - I mean, ANYTHING. Something as simple as, "let's put your shoes on." It's like she just chooses an issue to be defiant on, and n-o-t-h-i-n-g will deter her.

I have an example of just how stubborn Aiva is. This was quite some time ago, but it is a good example. We were in the grocery store, and she didn't want to sit in the cart, so I was buckling her in tighter, and she hit me, so I took to a corner in the store, and made her sit in "time out" until she had calmed down. She did, and thinking to myself, "man am I good at this" I resumed my shopping. After about ten seconds, Aiva started swinging her arms and legs, trying to hit me again, very deliberately, and said, "Mommy, come closer. I want to hit you so I can go back to time out." Oh. My. Heck. I had to just back away and pretend to be very interested in cheese to not lose it in the middle of the store. My little toddler had outsmarted me.

I have tried every method of discipline I can think of during these episodes. I stick her in time-out. I hold her firmly in my lap, with the promise that I'll let go when she calms down (sometimes this one comes to a halt because she bites or head-butts me). She is NOT usually this physical, but she has her moments. Usually it's just constant screaming that won't quit. I've tried taking away her favorite blanket and pillow. And after a long, draw-out battle I can usually manage to get her out of her fit, but when another tantrum is triggered, we're back at square one. I can't seem to figure out how to stop the tantrum without resorting to every trick in the book to get her out of it! And too often I end up using my last resort - spanking. She drives it on and on and on until that point. And I HATE spanking. And the threat of a spanking doesn't defer her in the slightest.

So I just had a thought . . . I think that I need to divide the discipline into 2 stages: #1 - somehow snapping her out of the fit. #2 - discipline deserved for the actual behavior. When she's in the middle of her tantrums, she's just not in the mindset to learn anything, so I'm thinking that I've got to do the actual discipline afterward, when she's thinking clearly and can actually "get it."

I DO just put her in her room a lot and tell her she can come out when she's calm, but there are situations where that just doesn't work. Like, we're in a hurry to go somewhere, or we're not at home.

So please help me! She just is not responding to the traditional stuff. And I'm pretty good at follow-through. If I threaten her with something, I follow it out. I won't threaten something I don't mean. But I need some creative discipline ideas. Especially ideas of how to snap her out of the fits. My mom gave me one: throwing a bit of water from a glass into her face.

I'm open to anything! Help me!!!!

P.S. I feel almost bad posting this, because Aiva has been a good girl today. I just put her down for bed. She helped me clean her room. She said her prayers. And after lights were out, I sang to her while she laid her head in my lap and I stroked her hair. Moments like that make me wonder where the other ones come from???? Sigh . . .