Ballerinas, bathtubs, and the letter "A"

Not everyone gets a ballerina who will put their silverware away...

 

But I do!  

I love the outfits she chooses when there is no school.

Bath time is always a hit at our house...

This boy's closed-mouth grin is one of my fav's!...He does it a lot :)
And because I had to zoom way in to hide some key parts of the birthday suit, I believe this pic has a little "noise" in it...am I right?  Thank you dad Firmage for educating me. :)

You can't tell my kids like the bath at all can you?....And it's amazing to me that out of their one million bath toys, not one of them is shown in this picture...that's just plain freaky! 

As for the letter "A"....

I'll let you guess what my little ballerina and I will be working on for the next little while... :/

Insomnia...

It's 2:12am, and I just can't fall back asleep after waking up at 12:54am thinking I heard a baby cry.  After checking both kids and realizing I must have been dreaming, I have been laying awake with a wide range of random thoughts floating around in my head.

Thoughts like, I'm excited to be waited on this Thursday at the Relief Society birthday dinner.  The guys are serving us ladies!

Elon is actually staying home with the kids and sending me up with a salad that I'm so excited to say he's making himself!  (He's a great cook, but chopping veggies for a salad is not exactly his forte.)

I want to become a good photographer so much it hurts. 

I'm yearning to know what terms like "noise" and "saturation" truly mean.  My sister gave me some valuable encouragement when she told me that a lot of great photographers start out doing exactly what I'm doing right now; asking questions, taking a million experimental pictures, asking more questions!  If I ever find myself in the midst of a "titled" photographer I carefully corner them and pelt them with every question under the sun in hopes of remembering at least one or two things they've said.  

I don't know why but another thought I had in my unsuccessful quest to fall back asleep was that I love Hallie's voice over the phone.  While I was in Vegas, I couldn't soak up that little voice enough.  I loved hearing how daddy made French toast for dinner and how he took she and Chandler to pick out a movie from red box to have a special movie night.  Nothing is better than being reminded of the kind of man I married, channeled through a voice that turns my heart to mush every time I hear it over the phone. 

Speaking of my heart turning to mush...whenever I have a hard time sleeping I often reflect on those first weeks of having a newborn,  where I would yearn with every fiber of my being for the opportunity to just lay down and not have to get up with a baby who doesn't seem to know the night from the day.  

That got me thinking back to when Chandler and I spent a good portion of the night in my dim-lit master bedroom, while Elon slept on the couch just to give us more room in the bed.  These were Chandler's "awake" moments and I remember putting his head on my shoulder to pat his back after a feeding.  He then lifted that fuzzy little newborn head and stared with wide eyes at the wall behind us.  I remember being wrapped with pure love for that little bundle.  I told myself I never wanted to forget this picture right here...of Chandler staring wide-eyed at that shadowy wall.  There's nothing really significant about that typical way I was holding him, or that way he often stared at things...but in that very moment, a hefty dose of unconditional love seeped into my heart for that boy that I never want to forget.

It's funny how little miracles happen while walking through the trenches of life...because I can't begin to describe how hard those sleepless nights were for me.

I love being a mom.

And even though most days I feel frustrated and tired, and too afraid to pray for the patience I desperately need,  I love that I have this opportunity to love in a way I didn't think was possible.

Can you tell it's 3:03 in the morning? 

I get a little sappy when I'm over-tired.  I should try to go catch a wink before my well-rested-bright-eyed-and bushy-tailed little ones wake me up!

Stuck

Hallie is an expert at getting dressed.

But even experts hit roadblocks every now and again:

Winter break...

This week I have been graced by the presence of my whole family! 

It's weeks like these that intensify my gratitude that Elon teaches school.  We really haven't had any set plans as a family...which has been kinda nice. 

We started the week off with cookies!...We take those gooey morsels very seriously around here.

Spoon-licking is taken just as seriously:

 Hallie is so careful with anything that could possibly dirty her hands.

 She was in a dilemma here because one of the melted chocolate chunks on the bottom of her cookie was sticking to the table, and picking it up would run her the risk of getting some on her. 

 

These are some of the best double chocolate chunk cookies out there, thanks to Betty Crocker's pouch cookie mixes.  We've pretty much tried them all.

It's obvious she doesn't care a wip if it gets on her face.

She has had ample play time with her daddy who has a super power called "I-can-play-make-believe-with-my-daughter-for-two-solid-hours-and-not-want-to-tear-my-hair-out."

And man alive am I grateful for that.

I love seeing the two of them all snug and cozy on the couch.

Chandler has been a mimic lately:

Can you tell?

Elon silently gestured for me to look at them during lunch.  Hallie was daydreaming, and Chandler thought he'd try it out.

He also wants to be "Vacuum Man" like his daddy.

Chandler's eyes seem to get blue-er, and I love it!

Yay for winter break!

Little things...

One of the main reasons I wanted to create this blog, was so I wouldn't lose those little things that will be gone someday. 

Little things, like every time I pick up Chandler, he pats my shoulder.

Or when Hallie hi-tails it up the stairs at bedtime to hide under her covers so we'll "wonder" where she is when we reach her room.

I absolutely LOVE it when Chandler grabs my face and says, "mama" right before he wraps his little arms around my neck and squeezes so hard he shakes, while continuing to say "ooooh...mama, ooooh mama."  I'll miss those hugs someday. 

I think it's a hoot that Hallie loves "Little House on the Prairy" so much, and will sometimes call Elon and I "Ma" and "Pa."

I love the dimple in the bottom left-hand corner of Chandler's chin that shows up when he smiles, and I missed it while I was in Vegas. 

I literally thought of it longingly while I sat in church and saw about 36 other little boys his age. 

I love how whenever I forget to set out an outfit for Hallie, she'll come downstairs with a tutu and tights on. 

I love the sounds coming from the living room when both kids are chasing each other.  Their little squeels of laughter make me happy.

I love how Hallie appreciates Chandler being little like I do.  Yesterday she said, "I wish Chandler could stay small and cute and chunky forever."  

She looked at him last night at the dinner table and said "look at him, he's just so cute!"  

I love that she loves him.

I love how Chandler is starting to say words other than, mama, dada, and ball. 

He now can say dog, water, cracker, car, baby, and maybe more that will come to me later.  Of course he doesn't say any of these words perfectly clear, but enough so we can understand. 

I love how Hallie asks me to tell her a story while I do her hair in the morning.  She knows it will lessen the torture of having me run a comb through that snarly hair of hers.

I love how whenever I lay Chandler in his crib at nap time, he'll give me the sweetest little smile and nod when I ask him if he wants me to turn his music on.

I love these two little people I get to call my kids:

 

Vegas

Last weekend, I was here:

 

In 73 degree weather...which is pure heaven in February, especially when you come from a place where polar bears would be comfortable five months out of the year!

And I got to travel with this lovely couple.

All because my brother Josh fell in love....  and I couldn't be more excited about that!  We think Tausha's pretty awesome.

And the best part about it was that I got to see all my loved ones who live clear across the country.

Which includes my newest niece, who I thought I'd never get to hold as an infant.

And it was love at first site!

I tried to soak up these two as much as possible during this short reunion.

It was so fun to see Kim in all her motherhood glory.  

That Miriam and Liesl sure have an awesome mom!

We stayed at a resort called Tahiti Village.

And boy was it nice!

It had a lazy river....

...and a "beach."

It was so much fun just sitting around, soaking each other up.

Before the wedding we had some time to kill, so we went to the Hoover Dam.  But in my opinion, the dam was out-shined by this breath-taking bridge that crosses it.   And when you stand in the center...

...you see this.

I was so grateful for that tall railing, although I had a phobia of dropping my camera over the edge.

It was a tad windy up there.

I love how little Liesl was zipped up safely in Kim's jacket :)

I love this picture.

We headed to the wedding chapel between 3:00 and 4:00pm that afternoon (Monday).

I wish I'd have taken some "non-candid" pictures of them afterword.  They looked great all decked out in their wedding attire and these pictures just don't do them justice.

They sure did seem happy!

It was so great to see my dad!  I love this man.

And my Uncle Reese!

I wish I would have taken more pictures of my Grandma Jerree.  She made this trip possible for me, and I can't even express what that means to me.  I love her so much!

So there is the trip in a nut shell.

If you want to, "stay tuned" for a lazy glide down "the strip," just imagine that every picture you see is about fifty times more exciting than what I happened to capture on my little point and shoot camera out the car window while driving.

Jim was the "lucky" man behind the wheel and he was such a trooper.

  I would love to see Donny and Marie sometime here at the Flamingo.

I forgot to mention that our first stop in "Sin City" was church. 

And it sure was fun to hang out with my brother Michael just like the old days!

  Sorry, these are a little out of order, but it's late and I'm too tired to fiddle with it.  

I had fun in the desert.