I love my kiddos

I love being a mom! I'm starting to worry that it doesn't come across that way to my kids--especially when Evie asks me things like, "Mom, are you frustrated?" or "Are you mad?" I'm taking a parenting class right now and last week the teacher made the point that sometimes we get so busy and stressed as parents that we don't let how much we love being moms show on the outside. Our kids need to see that we like what we do. So, as she said, if you are feeling happy, don't forget to tell your face. I'll add, if you don't feel happy, then fake it. Everyone has an off-day. Or an off-week. Those times pass, thank goodness. I am so grateful for my children. They teach me so much. I've been feeling really overwhelmed lately, but I'm starting to realize that all this struggle is really something that I need to help me grow. I just hope I figure out what I'm supposed to be doing as a mom before my kids are grown. So this blog entry is dedicated to my amazing, beautiful kids who love and forgive me no matter how many times their favorite shirt isn't clean or I feed them popcorn for lunch or I fly off the handle for something that I'm sure to them seems completely silly. And they are probably right about it being silly.

For Evie--I love the way she is working so hard to take responsibility now that she is eight years old. I'm completely blown away that she sat so nicely through four sessions of Conference without complaining once, and when I told her how proud I was of her, she smiled and simply said, "It's because I'm eight." She is a wonderful example to her brother and sisters and is trying hard to be patient with them when they get into her stuff or ruin her games. She has a great sense of humor! It's the kind of sense of humor that makes people laugh, but not at the expense of anyone else. I love that she wanst so badly to invite her friend from school to church. She is a great missionary! Evie loves to draw, to create elaborate games and pretend worlds for her dolls and toys. She loves riding her scooter and reading. I love her sweet, sensitive spirit in our home.

For Julianna--She is full of energy and drama. Clark and I often wonder what she will be like as a teenager and are trying to not freak out about it yet. She is silly and fun and has quite a stubborn streak. Her first grade teacher has spoken to me about it a couple of times, but we are agreed that it will hopefully be a good character trait in the long run as long as it can be channelled in the right direction. Anna is a great big sisiter--she loves Leila and delights in making her laugh or playing "baby" with her. Julianna loves to color and draw and says she's going to be an artist when she grows up. She loves cooking with me or helping with anything around the house. Yesterday she cleaned off the whole kitchen table after dinner to surprise me. She gets very upset when she has to admit she did something wrong and say sorry. She has a fear of enclosed spaces and once climbed a wooden privacy fence when she was five because she couldn't open the door. She's a great climber, as you can tell from that, and a fast runner. She's kind of the wild card at our house, but how boring would it be without that? I especially love her cuddles--can't do without them in fact!


For Russell--This little boy is so much fun. He's all boy--loving creepy crawly things and four legged critters of all kinds. This weekend it started to rain pretty hard outside and Russell said, "Yeah, it's raining!" I thought, yep, I love the rain too, but apparently our reasoning isn't quite the same because he followed up his comment with, "That means worms!" He has a fantastic belly laugh and he can get Leila giggling like no other. I'm so glad Russell is part of our family! I don't know what I would do without at least one boy to break up the drama! Russell has a major sweet tooth and begs for sweets before each meal. I'm not sure when he's going to get the idea that he won't ever get them until after he eats something decent. I'm probably sending him mixed messages because I keep him with me at the store by feeding him skittles or gum. (I know, bad!)


For Leila--Little Leila is quite the celebrity at our house. It's so fun for the older kids to be amazed by each of her new words or physical feats. She likes to entertain us at the dinner table with silly faces. If she's not getting enough attention she resorts to babbling at the top of her lungs. She's starting to talk, and by talk I mean babble some words that resemble real words. She still sucks her thumb a lot. She slowed down a bit after we put band-aids on her thumbs for a few weeks. We took them off a while back and now she's back to being a pretty heavy thumb-sucker again. Sigh. Tips anyone? She's a very cuddly baby, which is wonderful--well, unless you are trying to make dinner. She's trying to taste a cat-tail in this picture, don't you love it?

Gotta love them!