Exhausted

I don't know exactly what it was that put him over the top yesterday (maybe the intense session of playing playhouse disney games), but Benny was exhausted by five o'clock. He was having a hard day in general, he had gone to the study three or four times for time-outs. The last time he was sent there I went in ten minutes later to find him sacked out on the bed in the study. Poor tired cute little guy! Probably the best thing that happened yesterday was Family Home Evening. I took Elder Holland's talk from three conferences ago, about the power of words, and we talked about talking respectfully to one another. I thought they wouldn't pay very good attention because it was a talk for adults and I didn't have a whole lot of other things prepared as far as visual aids and such, but they listened closely and I have already noticed a change. Hooray!

Escaping

I couldn't believe my eyes. I heard very excited squeals from my sweet number five and went to see what all the excitement was about. She had escaped from her blanket in the music room onto the tile in the entryway! This is entirely too soon for such behavior. I'm not ready to baby proof my house and spend my day chasing after a curious and mobile baby.

ba-ba

Haddie sure loves her ba-ba. She is to that stage where she no longer likes to lay down to drink. She thinks she's too big for that kind of baby behavior. Julia had to get in the picture taking action!

Reclaiming the flower bed

On Memorial Day, Scott's brother Todd and his wife Laura, were kind enough to help us reclaim the flower bed. It had become overrun with weeds. So overrun with weeds, in fact, that we got a nice postcard from the HOA informing us so. It took us about an hour to clear it out with four adults working non-stop, and four kids "helping". I must say that the women did a better job at actually pulling weeds than the men who, for the most part, merely turned over the dirt. Oh, well, more weeds for me to pull later, at least they've been unrooted and should be easier to pull if I set aside an hour a week to pull them. Ugh!

Today

My talk went very well. I felt the spirit strongly while I was speaking. I didn't say everything I had wanted to say, and I didn't tie it all together as well as I would have liked, but I think the spirit filled in the blanks and spoke to people's hearts. I had several people come up to me and tell me how much they enjoyed my talk.
I also had a major oops. While we were sitting in Sacrament Mtg, before I gave my talk, Ryan says to me, "Mom, are you teaching my class today?"
Yes, I was. I totally forgot that I had told Ryan's teacher I would sub for her. That was two weeks ago, and I didn't write it down, so of course I forgot. I think it turned out alright though. It just happened that the lesson was Alma 20, which is where we just happen to be reading in family scripture study. I had a hard time getting there attention at first, so I stood up and tried to be really animated. It wasn't long before they were totally engrossed in the awesome story of the conversion of King Lamoni's father. I think after those two very spiritually fulfilling experiences, I had some let down this evening.

New blogging goal

I've decided that I would like to try and use my blog sort of like a journal. I'm always hesitant to post without pictures, but I think I would like to try to post once a day and just do a brief overview of the events of the day. So, here goes:
Today I cut off a chunk of my left pointer finger while in service to my fellow men. Wow, does it sting! My first thought was, "Man, with all my kids, this will NEVER heal!"
Scott and I went to the temple this morning. It was the most befuddled session I have EVER been too. One lady had to go to the bathroom in the middle of the session. One man made a mistake and they stopped the whole thing to point it out to him. The brother officiating made several mistakes. It was also obvious that the lady sitting next to me had neglected to eat breakfast. Her stomach was growling something fierce! Craziness! It just goes to illustrate the point that the church is true, the people trying to live it are human and make mistakes.
I'm in big trouble! I didn't give anyone a bath tonight and I have to give a talk tomorrow in sacrament meeting on Fasting. Which wouldn't be all that bad, except the Bishop asked me to direct my remarks to the Primary children. Do any of you personally know any Primary children who actually listen to the speakers during Sacrament? I don't. May the force be with me!

Awards Assembly

I went to the 1st and 2nd grade awards assemblies on Monday and Tuesday of this week. Julia got a two star certificate (for citizenship and scholarship) Ryan got a one star certificate (I think for citizenship, but I'm not sure). I'm very proud of them both, and we are all very excited that there are only six more days of school!

Six Months Old!

Look who's six months old! and so very cute too! She loves to sit on her daddy and tell him stories. She's getting cute chubby cheeks, and one of her new favorite things to do is roll underneath the couch in the music room. No one knows why that's her new favorite thing. But if I leave the room and come back, that's always where I find her!

Painting (obviously not one of my talents!)

This is a brilliant blue symbol of my painting skills. At it's longest it measures almost 2 feet across! The lesson learned: never paint when your kids are awake. I do fine when they're all asleep, problem is, I'm just too darn tired at the end of every day to want to stay awake for three more hours and paint. But, it looks like that is what I'll have to do from now on. It was me who spilled it though, I had temporarily moved the ladder over the paint bucket, it even had a lid on. I went to move the ladder, forgot the paint bucket was under it, and the rest is...like I said before, a brilliant blue symbol of my incompetence. Every other room I've painted so far I've done so without putting plastic down, and I've done just fine, I guess my luck finally ran out.
The second picture is my favorite part of the room so far, I painted where the room dents in a tan. It looks cool. I'll have to post when my project is complete. Don't get your hopes up for that to be soon. I'm running out of energy!

Husband Tag

What is his name? Scott Howard Matthews
How long have you been married? This year in December it will be 10 years!
How long did you date? six weeks, engaged for six more weeks. (fast I know, lucky for us it has worked out well!)
How old is he? 31 next month
Who eats more sweets? Me, he is SO good at self-control. I'm trying to learn from his great example.
Who said I love you first? Me of course. I'm such an emotional person and I let it all hang out. He can read my face in a split second!
Who is taller? Him.
Who can sing better? Me, but he has a raw talent for music that I wish his parents would have realized and helped him develop.
Who is smarter? I would definitely say him, but he would definitely say me.
Who does the laundry? I mostly do, but I hate folding it so he helps out when he can.
Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? When looking at the bed, that would be him.
Who mows the lawn? We take turns. How the lawn looks is definitely more important to me. And he does it because he loves me and mowing the lawn gets my allergies all riled up. He takes pity on me!
Who cooks dinner? Me, Scott can make three things, macaroni and cheese, sandwiches and ramen.
Who drives? He does. If any of you have ever seen the cartoon of road rage Goofy, that's me. I only drive between the hours of ten and two when there are no cars on the road!
Who is more stubborn? I think we are equally stubborn, just about different things.
Who kissed who first? He kissed me, and it was the sweetest, softest, most gentle kiss EVER! I wasn't even sure for a couple of seconds if our lips had touched or not. I was in love with him from that instant! It was like a window into his soul. He's so tender and gentle and kind.
Who asked who out first? This could turn into a long story--he claims that he called me to thank me for something and the spirit told him to ask me out. Which was very interesting because two weeks previous I had been into see the bishop to talk to him about me serving a mission. He had told me to fast and pray for my eternal companion. I was SO mad! It took me two weeks and reading Jacob 4:10 to calm down and do what the bishop had counseled. It was four days later that Scott called and asked me out.
Who proposed? Scott, this is my one grudge. He did the typical mormon thing and took me to the temple and proposed to me on one of the benches. That was all good I guess, but I was really hoping for something more creative and more symbolic of our dating experience or something. I guess you can't have it all, right?
Who has more siblings? Scott, he has 7 brothers. I have 2 brothers and 2 sisters.
Who wears the pants? We each wear one leg.
Now I'm supposed to tag some people. I would love to read about anyone who wants to write, but I'll especially tag my friend Kristie, my other friend Kristi, and my two sisters.

Jane Austen Quiz

Take the Quiz here!

This is funny, because Persuasion is my absolute favorite Jane Austen! I guess we most love what we most relate too. Thanks Aunt Shirlene for posting your results on your blog so I could get mine!

Ryan and Haddie

Here's a new video I uploaded of Ryan and Haddie, I thought it was pretty cute, and I would share it, because as I've been told a lot recently, I haven't been very good at posting. So, here ya'll go.
I just wanted to share my fun moment today too. It was just Ben, Haddie and I today. We spent a lot of the day in the car, running too and fro, trying to get things accomplished. We had just left Home Depot and were on our way to Wal-Mart. Haddie just started laughing at everything Ben did. It was the cutest! I just wish that moment could have lasted longer. Although, all the errands made Haddie very crabby, it was worthwhile. I got a lot done today, I replaced a little thing on the light on the upstairs fan so that we could actually have light in our game room again. I finally got the stuff to hook up our ice maker in the freezer. I got a light kit to add onto the fan in the living room. I bought the paint for the Master Bedroom and I'm so excited to get that done. Busy day!

Wordless Wednesday

Almost 6 months!

I thought she looked SO cute peeking out from under this blanket!
When she's in her highchair she loves to put her feet up on the tray. She does the same thing in her crib. I don't know what it is, she just likes to have pressure on her feet. One of her favorite things is when I squeeze her little feeties.

Recycling Project

Here is the doll that Julia made for her recycling project at school. She used my dead compression hose (the ones I had to wear when I was pregnant to keep my vein from exploding, I was happy to have the opportunity to cut them up--vent some anger), an empty strawberry nesquik carton, plastic grocery sacks and some old baby clothes. We also sewed some buttons on for eyes. I thought she did a good job!