I BELIEVE IN CHRIST

Since I last posted, we've welcomed Baby Luke into our family and are back in the full swing of things. I'll blog about his birth and our summer soon, but today I wanted to make sure I recorded some thoughts I have been having lately. That's why I blog anyways - is to keep hold of precious memories, thoughts, and happenings.

As I was driving home from the gym this morning, I was listening to my scriptures on my iphone- got to love technology today - and yes, that's how I have to squeeze it in most days. I was listening to Jacob 4.

Some things in that chapter spoke to me about things I have been personally learning and I wanted to share them. A friend of mine from highschool, Jelena, is deeply rooted in her own personal faith and she shares often her thoughts and convictions and I think I can learn from that. So here I am.

Since Luke was born I've been "struggling" to find balance. He is quite possibly the most perfect baby ever, however he's still a third child to care for. I still have to juggle his feedings, and his needs with those of Tyler and Chase. I have wanted to make sure to give each of them everything they need, while keeping up with life, my business, their activities, and Jeremy's schedule away from the home most nights.

I'm rather used to being capable of handling everything. I don't take on more than I can handle, and life is generally manageable. With life being so crazy, I prayed often to just be able to HANDLE it. I didn't want to eliminate things, I just wanted to be superwoman. My BRAIN was so overfilled with stuff, I couldn't remember ANYTHING. Being capable of handing it ALL wasn't the answer. I needed to eliminate.

During General Conference , this year, where we hear from the prophet and church leaders, I had an overwhelming feeling I just needed to remember life is simple. I decided at the end of each day, if I took care of my kids well, fed them healthy (that's important to me), and enjoyed them... I could be satisfied. I took facebook of my phone for now. I don't have anything against facebook, but I found that I would check it out of boredom on my phone while just sitting around. Replacing those moments of checking it with some quiet time has removed so much NOISE and clutter from my brain. Things have been better, I feel like life has been much more simple, and I can enjoy and handle things. (Maybe sleep deprivation is contributing to this all)

So fast forward to today's scripture reading in Jacob 4. Here are some verses that spoke to me:

7 Nevertheless, the Lord God showeth us our weakness that we may know that it is by his grace, and his great condescensions unto the children of men, that we have power to do these things.

10 Wherefore, brethren, seek not to counsel the Lord, but to take counsel from his hand. For behold, ye yourselves know that he counseleth in wisdom, and in justice, and in great mercy, over all his works.

I know that through the Atonement of Jesus, I am made whole, and he makes up for my short comings. I was reminded that I am not responsible for the power that I have to do the things that I do. I was shown my weakness of being crazy unbalanced to be reminded that through Christ I can do all things that are necessary, and that life is SIMPLE. I didn't need to "counsel" with the Lord and tell him I needed to be able to do everything, but that I need to take his counsel, that I need to remember life is simple. Life is about being happy, serving those you love, and the rest is just NOISE.

So there you have it. Life is SIMPLE. Christ makes up the difference.

LUKE I AM YOUR ...

So when we found out we were having a boy we asked the boys what they thought we should name him. Tyler REALLY wanted to name the baby "Jacob", because of the little boy on one of his Book Of Mormon videos that could climb SUPER tall trees. We had a few reasons not to choose that name so we told him what about Luke? He wasn't totally convinced, so we showed him all 6 episodes of STAR WARS, so that he would buy into the name. Well since then, he has bought into it, and both buys will randomly come up to my belly and exclaim: "LUKE, I AM YOUR FATHER!" I'm working on convincing them they need to change that to "BROTHER".... but at least the first name seems to be sticking. Now if only we could pick the middle name!?!?

LET'S PLAY MUSIC

My friend Kara started a Let's Play Music class this year where kids learn the basics of music. She is super talented and great with kids. Tyler's buddies were in it, so I signed him up. It was once a week for the year. Tyler was kind of a goofball in the class. If the concepts were logical or mathematical, or even just required memorizing he did just fine. If it had to do with keeping a beat... well let's just say he get's that from his mom...This is him at his end of year recital. I think he was embarrassed Jeremy was watching him, so he had to act extra cool the whole time. He kept trying to escape off the stage. Oh dear. We'll put him in math or something to make sure he's "balanced".

TRUTH

Soap box time..... this sums it up. In life, diet, work, everything. When I was at convention, someone came up to me and said, "I want to be just like you! I want to make money online and work from home. How many hours do you spend a day on your business?".... I replied: "Usually about 2-3 hours a day. Sometimes more, sometimes less".... She replied "Oh well, ya, but I don't want to spend THAT much time". Well THEN.

FAMILY PICTURES

We got these taken when I was about 8 weeks pregnant. I really wanted to document "this" phase of our lives. We are having such a blast with this stage of life, and know that we'll love every stage, but wanted to remember the days before we were outnumbered!

RAIDER

Whenever we run into cute little shitzu's we miss Raider. This little guy was at In and Out and was just tiny. Jer asked to hold him and it got us sentimental. The type of sentimental that wont make us do anything drastic for at least 10 years though. Just sayin'

SPEED AND AGILITY

So Jeremy has companies send him product for free to review on his site. He's always getting all sorts of training aids, hockey shooting aids and nets, and all sorts of stuff. Tyler LOVES whenever the UPS truck comes because then he gets to test the stuff out too. This last month, Jeremy did a review on some dry land training equipment stuff. Tyler soaked it all up. When Cole was over for Matthew's Missionary Homecoming, Tyler quickly set it all up and said "Hey Cole, I'm gonna give you a great work out to work on your speed and agility". That they did, and they had a blast!

DECORATING TIME

Now that our house remodel is done... well the floors, cabinets, counters etc... It's time to decorate! These are some things I'm thinking about in terms of style, color scheme, and what not. The house is SO white and neutral I can go just as crazy as I'd like with color.... We'll see how long it takes me to actually pull it all together. The last house was about 5 years!

HOUSE REMODEL

We had plans to slowly redo most everything in the house when we got it, but thought we'd do it over a year or 2. Well I kind of snapped one day, got impatient with the grimy linoleum, and we just did it all in a few weeks. We knew what we wanted so it wasn't hard to decide. Going to the parade of homes for 7 years in a row together, helps you define your style. Luckily, Jeremy and I have the same taste. We got quite a bit of the work done for trades with Food Storage products, so we came in well under budget and I'm totally pleased! The guy who painted our cabinets was AWESOME by the way. That was the thing I was most nervous about, but couldn't be happier with how they all turned out. We also did travertine in our bathrooms, and carpet in our office. I love it. Now to decorate!

KINDERGARTEN ORIENTATION

I won't say "I can't believe I have a kid that's going to start kindergarten in the fall"... because honestly, this kid acts like a teenager anyways. We went to his little orientation, and he had a good time. I told him all the things he needed to know before kindgergarten, and nothing really phased him, except he is concerned they want you to be able to tie your own shoes. We're going to have to work on that. I'm feeling like life is flying by way too fast, but this little guy is ready.

SHELF RELIANCE CONVENTION

Jodi and I went to the Shelf Reliance Convention in mid-April. It was 3 days up in Salt Lake and we won a free hotel, so we took advantage of it and stayed up there. It was nice not to to have to wake up early to get there each morning. We had juts hit GOLD ranking in March which is the 2nd highest ranking you can get with the consultant program, so that was neat. We had 7 members of our team there from all over the country, so it was nice to meet them and to get to know what they need more as a team. We have about 60 consultants and had never met any of them since we do all our business online. The typical format is to do home parties, but we just sell through our blog.

When I was checking out some of the new computer stuff the company was rolling out, the tech guy was really excited to meet me because he knows what kind of traffic we drive to the blog, and that we're number 1 on google for Food Storage - not an easy task! These are some of the gifts Jodi and I gave our consultants. I felt pretty crafty transforming those #10 cans. I was too lazy to go to the store! Also, to tease Jodi-- here's a picture of her dinner, after she was done. All vegetables still on the plate ;)

FAMILY NIGHT

Just chilin', playing a church card game for Family Night. It's about building the Armor of God, and protecting yourself from sin. We don't always have the most peaceful family nights.... sometimes the boys wrestle and scream, but this was a nice perfect little night. I LOVE my life. It's perfect - for me!

YOUNG WOMENS

I just love being in the Young Womens. One of the girls in my ward wrote this little thing about me on facebook. It reminds me so much of how I felt about my Young Womens Leaders. They were so awesome, and I looked up to them so much. I think 12-18 is such an important time for girls. A time where they decide they are WORTH it, and decide on what kind of futures they will MAKE for themselves. I really have loved my calling at church working with these special girls. What a fun time in their lives to be apart of!

EASTER 2012

For Easter this year, the Easter bunny brought the boys candy, flip flops, and new bedding. We haven't had bedding for the boys since they both moved into twin size beds. They have just had random blankets. I was waiting for the day when I found the perfect quilt... which I did.... and it was ridiculously expensive. So we finally settled on the cliche sports theme comforter and called it good. I'll do that perfect quilt for them in the next redecorate! We also got Tyler a white shirt for church, so he can start learning about wearing the right church clothes for passing the sacrament etc. Chase was thrilled to get "Cars" flip flops, and couldn't believe there was candy all over our house. It was a nice quiet morning before we rushed to church for 9 am. I love having our own family on these holidays. We can take it easy and do our own thing non intense. After church we went to my families house for dinner. Ham =gross. Just sayin'

TOUGH GUYS

These little boys are such BOYS. They love being tough, they love building their muscles, they love everything boy. Sometimes when they wont eat, we tell them they need to eat so they can get big muscles. Well that usually solves any problems, and they hurry and finish their food. Sometimes we even have super heroes like Green Lantern supervise their eating to make sure they eat their food. Chase wakes up and asks for his "strong man food breakfast". Tyler has always been a natural healthy eater, but we've sure had to work with Chase. It hasn't' been easy, but he does a pretty good job eating healthy now. I believe so strongly in feeding your kids healthy foods for SO many reasons... but I'll stop there, cause I could definitely get on a big soap box if I keep talking :)

THE BEAK

Chase has developed this little routine when we go into the gym. There's a long hallway on the way to the kids center where all the sales staff have offices with windows along the whole hall. Each day, Chase stops at EACH office and does a little "beak". "Beak" is another word for a "tease" around here. He has all those sales people loving him, and looking forward to when he stops by. One of them even brought in special candy just for him, and just loves him. That little guy has a way of brightening people's day just by being him. Love him.

TROPHIES

This is what you have to deal with when you're married to a SUPERSTAR. I "encouraged" him to throw away ones that weren't meaningful. This is what was left. At least we have a bigger house now. Although, other than that, he doesn't keep much, so it could be worse. We're both fairly anti-clutter!

ARTS AND CRAFTS

Tyler has become quite the little Artiste these days. He always used to get a coloring assignment at church or preschool and he would just scribble all over it with one color. Then all of a sudden, one day he realized you could use different colors, stay in the lines, and create things. He has been very diligent in his projects ever since. He is actually quite OCD about being allowed to finish, and about being able to do it right- wonder where he gets that from? I often catch him at the daycare at the gym working really hard on a picture for mom or dad.

For preschool, whenever he has a take home project, I let him do the whole thing himself and it's so fun to see what creations he comes up with. He was to decorate a pumpkin last fall, and of course, he made a hockey playing pumpkin. His wasn't the "most perfect" (parent made) pumpkin, but it was my FAVORITE! The little puzzle looking picture he is pointing at, is actually a globe, and he's pointing to where he will be going on a mission. The flower drawing was the first drawing he made really specifically for me, and took so much time to make sure it was perfect. I LOVED it.

GOOFBALL CHASE

Little Chase has become such a riot these days. He loves being silly, and especially loves teasing. If he ever sees big brother Tyler stressed out, sad, crying, or any form of distraught, he immediately starts laughing at him, and calling him a "girly man". I've been saying lately..."Tyler has been taught by his father how to tease, but Chase is a natural". I guess one day we may have to tell him to be nice, but for now he's pretty entertaining!

AND THAT'S A WRAP

Well, it's been a long day. I just wrote OVER 100 blog posts to cover all of 2011 and 2012 up until now. I've officially uploaded all my iphone pictures and made little notes on each of them. I had a hard time blogging last year because of expectations I thought I had for my blog. I wanted to make a really neat book out of my blog, but I felt like iphone pictures weren't gonna cut it. Well I've been thinking about it a lot and figured, iphone pictures are better than no pictures, and no blog.

We still take good pictures on holidays, birthdays and special occasions, but they don't capture our everyday life - and that is what I want to remember. The "good" pictures are on Jeremy's computer and super annoying to get into this blog. I still have those good pictures and I'll just print, archive, or do something fabulous with those one day. But for now, this blog is just a little glimpse into our daily lives as seen on an informal iphone.

A few months ago my dear friend Kayla asked me why I wasn't blogging about my life anymore. I answered her "I'm too busy living it!". So for now I vow to be better about doing quick informal posts about our daily lives, BUT I'm not going to commit to anymore than that :) I'm too busy - and it overwhelms me to think I can actually do it! And besides, nobody READS this.

SNEAK PEEK

Here's a sneak peek at some stuff in our house. Before and After pictures coming later... when we finish the backsplash in the kitchen and baseboards. Those aren't currently done though- so hang tight.