favorite quotes from my Guy

I have the best job in the world, raising two of the most tender Spirits I have ever known. My kids and I really teach each other truths each day. Here are some of my favorites with the Guy the last couple months. 

"I want to tell you one of my favorite seeds to eat."

"OK"

"One of my favorite seeds to eat is watermelon seeds, that is white."

"What's Spanish in Spanish?"

"You're going to be very excited when I'm a daddy! But I need to get married first."

"What closed my door?" (when the parked car door closed)

"Gravity."

"Is gravity 'wind' in Spanish?"

"What was your favorite part of today?"

"Atlantis" (the water park)

"Was that more fun than the grocery store?"

"Yes"

"More fun than the airport?"

"Yes"

"More fun than watching mommy take a nap?"

"No."

(I hear whispers of a prayer and look over at him.)

"Someone was praying."

"Yeah, who?"

"The Joker was praying to get out of the lion's den."

"I'm going to find a wife and kids." (marching out of the room)

"Where are you going to find your kids."

"I don't know. I need to find my wife first."

"Where are you going to find your wife."

"Where jet planes are."

"At the airport?"

"Yes. I'm going to find my wife at the airport."

"Where are you going to find your kids?"

"I'm going to find my baby brother  from heaven."

"That's right. That's where your babies will come from too."

"Babies are sweet. I want babies to stay little, but they have to grow up."

"Raise your hand if you love Jesus!"

(Pause church music) "Kids do you feel that? That peaceful and calm love in the house? That's the Holy Ghost. He's here in our home with us helping us feel that love."

"The Holy Ghost is a person?"

"Yes, he is, but he does not have a body, he's just a spirit. So we can't see him when he's here but we can always feel him if we pause and listen to the way we feel in our hearts."

(Hollering as he looks around the room) "Holy Ghost, where are you?"

I Love my job!

The mess of progress - our kitchen remodel

I watched them tearing a building down,

A gang of men in a busy town.

With a ho-heave-ho and lusty yell,

They swung a beam and a sidewall fell.

I asked the foreman, “Are these men skilled,

As the men you’d hire if you had to build?”

He gave me a laugh and said, “No indeed!

Just common labor is all I need.

I can easily wreck in a day or two

What builders have taken a year to do.”

And I tho’t to myself as I went my way,

Which of these two roles have I tried to play?

Am I a builder who works with care,

Measuring life by the rule and square?

Am I shaping my deeds by a well-made plan,

Patiently doing the best I can?

Or am I a wrecker who walks the town,

Content with the labor of tearing down?

(source)

Our very outdated house has just been updated. Here is our journey:

The wall we tried to remove had a vent hidden inside. Yikes. So my awesome husband just moved it to the other side of the kitchen and closer to it's final destination. Yeah, he rocks....

The western cabinets are gone!

The ugly vent cover is gone! This was so therapeutic for me to throw away. 

The mister connecting the new HVAC vent on the other side of the kitchen. Did I mention he rocks my socks?

Chaos. Ugliness. The picture of progress. 

The wall (and vent) are gone!!!

Thank you, Electrician. I always wanted my basement to look like Swiss cheese. 

Installation begins.... THANK YOU to our friends at BC Builder's Supply Inc. !!

This GIANT fridge was always in the way of someone, something for weeks. And all the moving it around scraped up the floor. :( But it is awesome to have a GIANT fridge for our food. 

On the other side of our new BFF Tom is our added floor to ceiling pantry that took the place of the wall we removed. What an improvement! We have so much new storage space in the kitchen that entire shelves are empty right now. 

Removal of old counter tops. 

Out with the old.... I am bursting with excitement!

Instead of this ugly glued-on 80's panel of particleboard, we put cabinets on this side of the sink and extended the counter top....

... but we had to keep this weird wall dividing the cabinets because of this pipe wiring. 

The patched wall and new vent in the proper place. 

Our new design of kitchen came from the interior designer at Lowe's. He has his MA in Interior Design and we had a lot of fun with him. I didn't want to mess up this huge investment with my horrible indecision and lack of coordinating colors or something, so I asked him to plan a design based on our floor color and appliances. He suggested the layout, counter top color, cabinet color and door design. We approved and then picked our own sink, faucet, handles, and the new light fixture.

I am hesitant to post pictures of the new cabinets and counter tops because it is not quite done. The back splash tile is not installed yet. We're looking for the right person with the right price to do it. Any suggestions? Despite my hesitations, here is the most recent and updated kitchen:

Thank you to my Uncle Bill for installing the under-counter lighting!! This was a bonus for us; something we were not planning on doing but came together nicely. He even added a third switch on the wall so it is all in the wall. 

I love our new faucet and sink! Deeper sink, higher faucet, pull down sprayer head, and it even came with a soap dispenser pump, which I love! Simple pleasures...

You can just ignore the patchy, holey red wall in the background. That will be covered with the tile below.

Our new light fixture. Ug, the old one was cracked, disgustingly grimy, and SO 80's.

This kitchen always was lacking a pantry, but not anymore! This was the designer's idea to maximize storage without crowding out the dining room too much. 

This is the view from the living room. These cabinets are where I had been sitting and removing the painted panel in the previous picture. 

Although it is not completely finished, we are extremely pleased with the outcomes and updates. This house never had better owners than us; we are so good to her. ;) 

What what do you think of the improvements!?

L's talking

My L is talking all day every day! She is definitely developing well. Just a couple weeks ago I recorded some of her sentences as follows:

• Baby Ian sleep.
• La-dle (her brother) take baby clothes.
• That one.
• My bed.
• See my baby.
• Do-ert drink wawa.
• I want my blanket.

"Look. See me smile."

"Me eat pizza."

 
Now she talks in 6-word sentences and can communicate whatever she desires around here. Every day I am thankful to be undistracted during this phase of her life. She changes so fast and I thank God I'm here to watch it every day. I love hearing her say "ready, set, go" and "this much" as she stretches her arms to show me how much she loves me.

Her favorite books are Cats, Corduroy and the Very Hungry Caterpillar.
He likes to go to bed with a book, her tiny baby doll from Grma Bev, her stuffed very hungry caterpillar from Grma O, and of course her blanket (which Sarah Barton from the ward crocheted).

She is a girly girl through and through. She loves pink, jewelry, make up, shoes, bows, the works. 

L is an opinionated lady. She will let you know when she wants to be alone or held or fed. She is mild, quiet, and shy, especially around people she didn't expect to talk to her. She is very receptive to the Holy Ghost and talks about Jesus often. She will usually pray when we ask, but she is so quiet that I think Heavenly Father is the only one who hears her. I catch a word here or there, but she is so quiet when praying. More quiet than usual. Maybe that is because we are more quiet than usual when praying.

Don't mind the nauseated little man in the back. Poor Guy. 

She loves her nursery class. She recently started asking to watch "show" and my heart sank to the floor. Oh no! The dread of being the second child. She is exposed to things so much younger than her brother.

I love her more than words can say. She brings a feminine, soft spirit to our family and I can't believe we lived so long without her. I love my little lady to the moon and back.

childcare and answered prayers

I know Heavenly Father hears my prayers. I never doubted it. Recently, He reminded me just how much he's willing to answer them too. And that the things that matter to me, matter to him. He can make things happen quickly if necessary. I'm grateful for these reminders so I can recognize them and maybe even uplift others by sharing them.

Months ago, Jared and I began praying about our finances. We are doing fine, but would like to get a second car. We function without one, but over the last year it has become increasingly difficult. Jared is now done with his schooling so we have loans that need to be paid off. There are many reasons we pray about our finances; appreciation that we have financing for life in this world, and desire for more independence so that we may better give to others too. 

During that time of prayer, we had many financial opportunities present themselves. I was a little dumbfounded. First, a stranger from Freecycle contacted us after several months to say he had an opportunity for us to work from home. Within 2 weeks, 2 other people in our lives had invited us to join in on opportunities to work from home. We seriously looked into them and prayed about them. Although none of these felt like the right match for our family, I was amazed at the quick response. I'm grateful to each of these people that acted on promptings to invite us to do something. Within another week, someone else invited me to sell for Mary Kay. Again, it wasn't the right match for me, but I could see that the Lord is willing to answer my plea for opportunities, but places the choice in my lap. I had options. Lots of them. And they kept coming!

Next, a couple of married friends asked if I would be interested in watching their child in my home. And pretty quickly; they needed someone soon. This opportunity did settle well with me and we made arrangements to watch the little man three days a week. Awesome. 

The very first day I watched all three, however, I could see that it was not going to work for my kids. It was a hard combination of personalities, especially for my baby L. Each day it got harder for her, and consequently harder for me. So, our trial period ended after three weeks, I believe. 

However, the Lord provided another opportunity for me to work from home and make extra money. Making my children happy and secure at home is really important to me, and it appears that it was really important to Him too. On the second day that I watched our first little friend, my husband was approached by a coworker. She was in search of an in-home childcare provider for her premature baby. This match has been PERFECT for our family. What an answer to prayers this little man has been! We love him and the opportunities he has brought to our family. He starting coming over a month ago, and all is still well. 

Our little buddy

 Our new little friend E has helped us all. He has helped Jared by being a source of income and stress relief to the whole family. He has blessed me by restoring a bit of my confidence in my abilities. When L was a newborn, I was traumatized. That's the main reason I'm not pregnant with #3 yet. This little man has helped me feel like I could take care of a newborn again, it doesn't have to be traumatizing, and I could even do it with three kids! He is here three days a week, and so we get a good balance of time with and without him. My children are learning/relearning how to act around a baby and how to help me. L LOVES to hold him, feed him, and she tells me everything he does. "Baby E cry. Baby E eat. Baby E tired. Baby E toot." It cracks me up! 

S wanted to play dress ups with the only other male in the house :)

We love E. He blends well with our schedules, our needs, and our personalities. His parents are wonderful to work for - reliable, kind, friendly, and understanding. I love talking to his mom about motherhood. Their whole family has been a blessing. And I know Who to thank for sending them our way. :)