Admiring the first show fall

We're DRUG FREE and we're gonna celebrate

For DARE week we celebrated being DRUG FREE by:

 wearing our pajamas to school

 crazy hair day,

and crazy shoes and socks day.

Say NO to drugs!!

Fall Festives

I love fall!  Who doesn't?  We have been doing so many fun things!  We met my sisters and their kids at the Pumpkin walk then went out to dinner with all of them.

 My Mom had us all over to paint/carve pumpkins and have a little Halloween Party.  She's such a fun Grandma!

 She had cupcakes for the kids to decorate and a bag of goodies for each of them.  The kids had a blast!

 We didn't finish our pumpkins at Grandma's house so we had a little pumpkin carving party of our own.  It was pretty much non eventful for Lunnie, but the rest of us had fun.

 Brinley's favorite part was playing in the guts!

 And I made a little Halloween dinner for my little family.  

Love this time of year!

The First Tooth

So, we were in Brinley's room and I was helping her pick up when she ran into the bathroom.  She came out with a horrified look on her face and cried, "MOM, I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW THIS, BUT I THINK I LOST A TOOTH!"  You could tell by the look on her face she was terrified.  I can only relate it to the dreams I've had hundreds of times about losing my permanent teeth.  I hugged her and said, "That's ok, that means the Tooth Fairy can come."  I then asked her if she bumper her face or anything since we didn't eve know here tooth was loose.  She must have just felt with her tongue that it was gone so she ran to the mirror to look and it was GONE.  She had just eaten some almonds so we are pretty sure she swallowed it.  Gross!  She left a note for the Tooth Fairy under her pillow and the Tooth Fairy still left her some money and a teeny tiny note.

Life Lessons

I intended to sit down and write about real life.  I post pictures of the things we have been doing, but I wanted to write about what life is really like… that was spring.  I’ve since watched the mountain turn red from my kitchen window and we have even had our first show fall.  The days come and go so quickly.  My garden has been planted, harvested and even preserved since my intentions to write about life.  And I’m sorry you get this post on a day like today.  I apologize if it’s a little too honest, a little too much emotion.  It’s raw and it’s real.  And today, this is my life.

 This life is really amazing you know.  I’m convinced there is no greater joy on this earth than being a parent, a mom especially.  Out of all of the things we can experience in this earthy life, out of all of the emotions we can feel becoming a parent surpasses anything else.  And because of this, a bad parenting day exceeds any other ordinary bad day.  When it comes to our kids, our emotions seem to be so much stronger.  I have watched this in myself and had to try to overcome some of this.  If I feel like someone is being mean or unfair to one of my children, watch out, mother bear comes out!  Not kidding, I have recognized this and know that I need to let my children fight their own battles, but I can’t help it, like I said, when it comes to my children my emotions are just so much stronger. 

Today wasn’t exactly the best parenting day for either Dustin or myself.  To make a long story short, we found our selves in a situation with Brinley that we really didn’t know how to handle.  Or should I say, didn’t want to handle.  Our daughter is only 5 and I realized it is HARD to watch your kids make a choice when you know there is a better way, an easier way.  It’s HARD being a parent sometimes.  It’s hard loving someone so much!  And it is HARD being the one that has to punish them!

Brinley made a choice, it wasn’t the right choice.  She didn’t do anything bad, but Dustin and I both felt that there was a lesson she needed to learn.  We gave her the choices and we gave her the consequences.  The choices and the consequences were both very clear, but stubborn little Brinley chose what she wanted to do and together we walked over to the dumpster and threw away her very favorite most prized earthy possession  “blankie”  I probably would not have gone to such an extreme measure, but that’s all we had with us at the time.  Blankie was Brinley’s favorite blanket.  It was a soft pink, green and white striped blanket we purchased at Target when I was pregnant with her.  It has provided comfort for her since she was and infant.  She loved it!  The blanked was really quite gross and worn and…loved!  The entire walk to the dumpster I just wondered if I was doing the right thing, wondered if I had taken it too far, wondered why we weren’t the type of parent to just spank their kids and get over it and wondered if I would really have the courage to break my little girl’s heart. 

I tossed blankie, dropped to my knees in the middle of the parking lot, wrapped my arms around her and told her how much I loved her, I asked her who made the choice and she said, “I did”  I asked her how it made her feel, I told her she had another chance to make the right choice and we talked about bad choices having bad consequences.  I picked her up, she wrapped her arms and her legs around me and I carried her.  I gave her the opportunity to make the choice again.  I was convinced that she would make the right choice, but when it came down to it, she did not.  ARE YOU KIDDING ME?  By this time I was just mad!  I handed her over to Dustin because I was so done being a Mom.  Stubborn little Brinley still refused which resulted in more privileges being taken away and we all came home feeling defeated.  Is that what this was about?  Was she really making the “wrong” choice or just not doing what we “wanted” her to do.  Did we make the “right” choice?  Needless to say, I cried, a lot.  I cried with her, I told her she was a really good girl, I told her we all make bad choices, I told her how making bad choices always makes us sad.  I wonder if this whole things was just a “bad choice” on my part?  What was this all over?  Something stupid.  She didn’t really make any “bad” choices, just a few less favorable ones.  How do you make sure your kids draw a line between the choices they make and the person they are?  How do you get them to see that because they made a bad choice doesn’t make them a bad person?  Did we blow this way out of proportion or will she get it? What if she really did learn a lesson about choices and consequences?  What if her harsh punishment tonight saved her from making some life altering “bad choices” down the road?  How do you ever know if you got it “right” as a parent?  Yes, I do have a lot to learn about life.  I don’t have all of the answers and sometimes I wonder if I have ANY of the answers, but tonight I can’t help but relate our experience to a part of this great big plan.  And I’m pretty sure I love my little stinker more tonight than I did this morning.  I hate it when she hurts!  Because when she hurts, I hurt MORE. 

In the end, we had a great dinner together, we talked about the things we were thankful for and we're crossing our fingers that we have a better day tomorrow.  Ahh, life lessons  (sigh).

Dear Columbus, thanks for sailing the ocean so I could spend some time with my family

So, over Columbus Day we took/had some time off.  Four whole days to spend as a family, that's pretty much unheard of, we're busy-busy these days.  We stayed in Salt Lake and wore the girls right out (more than once).

 Typical London, climbing into whatever closet, cupboard or drawer she can get herself into.

 The girls were gems!  And Lunnie loves the water!  We shopped, played, swam, ate yummy food and yeah, that's pretty much it.  

 City Creek really is amazing!  

 And when we got home we took the girls to pick out pumpkins. 

 somehow we ended up with quite the car load.

Such a fun time with this cute little family of mine!  Oh and we can't forget our first parent-teacher conference.  So proud of Miss Brin.  What a smart little girl she is.  

A Little London Love

I can only begin to tell you how much I love this girl.  I suppose only a mother can understand what a ‘gift’ like this will do to a person.  I have just honestly loved every single day with her!  She was know as, and probably really was “the sweetest baby in the whole world” that may have changed a bit about the time she turned one.  Don’t get me wrong, she’s still really sweet, but now she’s sweet with a whole lot of attitude!  This girl can scream!  I swear, we can’t take her anywhere.  Our house usually seems way to crazy for just having two little girls, but we love it!  London’s dark hair has turned blond.  People always tell her she looks just like her Dad which is interesting because they also say she looks just like her sister or just like me.  I just see London in her, just the perfect chubbiness, the cutest little fingers and toes, stunning blue eyes and even her belly button is cute!  I love every single thing about her. She’s super smart, she’s loves other babies, animals and chocolate.  She’s perfect!  We love her and she completes us (for now).  She makes us feel like a family and love being a part of one.  Thank you, thank you, thank you God for letting me be her Mom!  I’m the luckiest girl in the world!

Getting things done

It's so nice to be getting things done around here.  Never ending projects at the Cazier house.  

This is my life

We have been loving this fall weather and don't these two just put a smile on your face?

Just another random conversation with my 5 year old

Brinley  "Heavenly Father loves evey single person in the whole wide world."
Me  "Yes he does."
Brinley  "Even you Mom!"
Me  "Ha ha, thanks Brinley."