Happy Birthday Landon

Happy Birthday to Landon

We have had quite an exciting weekend. We started celebrating the birth of Landon on Thursday by going on a 2 night camping trip at Huguenot Beach. It rained on an off during the campout, but the weather kept it cool and provided us "pale skins" some MUCH needed relief from the heat. (I'm not going to lie, I thought it was going to be awful to camp on the beach because of the heat) Landon loved playing outside all day - bike rides, swimming, shell collecting, roasting marshmallows, and playing at the park. We were so blessed to have our family there with us.

We returned from our camping trip on Saturday morning. We cleaned, washed clothes, and took a very LONG nap. After our nap, we took Landon to the mall for a special surprise...A TRAIN RIDE!! He absolutely loved it. It was the first time that Landon had ever been on the mall train. He stared out the window the whole time. Though it wasn't Kaison's birthday, he got to come along for the ride. He was thrilled. It was a fun surprise for our special boy!

And now it is June 10th. 3 years ago, our lives changed forever. We were blessed with a child handpicked by our Heavenly Father. He has brought so much fun, joy, and adventures to our life. Landon is an intelligent, social child who is compassionate to others. He doesn't like touching odd creatures - crabs, snails, bugs, etc. He LOVES to sing and dance. He does not like to get dirty. He loves his family. He loves nursery. His favorite shows are Chuggington and Mickey Mouse. He loves to pray and will fight you to be the one to pray. He loves to ask "Will you sleep with me?" in the sweetest voice EVER, in hopes of Mommy and Daddy laying down to snuggle. He loves puzzles and reading. Learning time is one of his favorite times of the day. He has memorized SEVERAL books. He loves to snuggle. Some mornings when Steven goes to work, Landon will come in the bed with me and snuggle. He wrap his arms around me and tell me that he loves me. What more could a mom want?? What a great kid. I could go on and on forever about him. So, without further ado.. Happy Birthday Landon!!!!!

FHE Pretzels and Prayer

Family Home Evening Pretzels and Prayer

Each Wednesday, we try our hardest to have Family Home Evening with the boys. We decided to curb one of our cravings - eating Auntie Annie's pretzels - by making pretzels from scratch. Mmmm Mmmm, they were so delicious.

• 3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons table salt
• Kosher Salt for Topping
• 1 teaspoons vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon butter (melted)
• 3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoons powdered sugar
• 1 tablespoon plus 1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast
• 1 1/4 cups + 2 tablespoons warm water

What To Do

Professional Pretzel Shaper!

Prepare yeast as instructed on the packet. Add oil to the yeast and stir. In a separate bowl mix place powdered sugar, butter, flour and salt. Mix. Place yeast mixture into the dry ingredient bowl.  Flour a surface and knead the dough for about 10 minutes. Place dough in a covered bowl ( I use plastic wrap) and let it rest for about an hour at 80 degrees. Dough should double in size. Preheat oven at 425. Take dough and cut into 8 sections. And roll into a long rope. Prepare a baking soda water bath with 2 cups warm water and 2 tbsp baking soda. ( It will give the pretzel that wonderful brown color). Dip each pretzel into the bath. Place pretzel on to parchment paper on top of a baking sheet. Bake for about 10 minutes or until pretzel is brown. Blush melted butter (optional ) onto each and sprinkle salt on top.

Kai was digging in!

They really were fantastic. All the pretzels were DEVOURED. After dinner, we had a lesson prayer. Aunt Ri and Jess stayed for the lesson that Steven prepared. We played a game with the Primary Song "Family Prayer". We acted out the words to the song by marching in a circle and then kneeling in family prayer. We closed our eyes, folded our arms, and bowed our heads. The boys were amused by the song and the game, we practiced several time kneeling in a circle together as a family. I love the time that we spend together as a family, especially as I see my little angels grow in the gospel. Their personalities are really shining through and its difficult to not be proud of who they are. Landon is kind and caring. Kai is joyful and ALWAYS smiling. We love them very much and are so blessed to have them in our lives.

 

"This is a pretzel Mommy!"

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

A picture is worth a thousand words. I was unable to find the video camera, so I snapped a shot of them as quickly as I could. Landon was feeding his brother yogurt and got a little on his cute nose. It only took a few seconds for the joyous noise of laughter between the two, and it continued for a few minutes. Just precious. I love them so much.

The Gator Gauntlet

Sitting on the couch with the blinds open, watching the branches sway outside as Tropical Storm Beryl makes an appearance, and READY to blog. This is WEEK 3! Wahoo!! They say it takes 14 days to make a habit, so I guess I have to blog 11 more Sundays to make this an OFFICIAL thing.

As promised, here is the dirt (I mean MUD) on the Gator Gauntlet. Team Mud Guts and Glory headed down to Gainesville Florida to do a Medieval 5K through a castle, forest, creeks, and of course, mud! It was challenging. I, personally, had a difficult time. In the months of January, February, and March, I worked hard at the gym, training to run. Since I got sick in April, I have found it difficult to get back my self back in there, and it showed in my run on Saturday. I did not do MY best. But that WILL change. I am not willing to give up on one of my resolutions to LIVE HEALTHY. So back to training.

Here are the before photos of the Gator Gauntlet

Team Mud Guts and Glory

Grateful that my hubby and I do this together.

And the after... 

So grateful for my hubby who works with me to tackle all obstacles that stand in our way...

Crafting Makes Me Happy

Crafting Makes Me Happy

I love to craft. Make things with my hands. Make something new. Design something colorful. Feel the satisfaction. Feel talented. Pride.

In an effort to keep my happiness in check, I am making time for myself. It is impossible to dedicate ALL of my time to work and family. Sometimes you must make room for yourself. And my favorite "me time" is spent creating something. I have learned alot of skills through the years and I have set another goal to craft something each week - even if it is something little.

This week, I painted a very large flower for Jessica. It felt nice to hold a paintbrush in my hands, mix colors, and pretend like I knew what I was doing. It turned out decent. It took a while for me to like it, I am my own worst critic. In the end, Jessica liked it and I was happy to make it for her.

The second craft for the week was a maxi skirt. I didn't have enough yardage for the dress so I did my best, I only had 1 and a quarter instead of the 2 yards required. It made a difference, it didn't flow at the bottom the way it was supposed to. I have to walk like a Geisha but I love the knit pattern, very bright and colorful, too bad JoAnn's didn't have anymore. I plan on making some more maxi skirts when I get some $$ for more knit fabric. Very excited!

Great week! And look at me, held true to doing another post on Sunday - 2 weeks in a row! Woot Woot!

Next week I will report on the Gator Gauntlet that we are doing next Saturday. What is a Gator Gauntlet?? You'll find out soon...

Mother's Day 2012

Its been a while... a very long while. Last year, I made the goal to blog each week, and I didn't follow through. I couldn't follow through. Once again, I am at the bottom of a viscous roller coaster of ups and downs of being a working mom. My Florida Virtual School hours sometimes leave me ragged and I long for a life that I don't have, that I see other moms so freely enjoying. To solely have the responsibility of raising children in the gospel seems wonderful, and I'm not sure if I'll every get to partake in that blessing. I do what I can, when I can, but I am often times disheartened by the things I know I could and would do with my children if I didn't work 40 hours a week. There are not a lot of young LDS married women who know how I feel which often times makes me feel completely alone in my battle. Trying to raise 2 rambunctious boys while juggling phone calls/emails/grading often makes me feel inadequate as a mother.

Last night, I attended a Girls Night Out thrown by the Relief Society. At the end, we are able to watch Hilary Week's Time Out for Women 2012 talk. It was wonderful - "click". Hilary tested a study that said people averaged 300 negative thoughts a day. She bought a clicking device to test the theory. Each time she had a negative thought, she clicked. By the end of the week, she felt depressed. She realized that because she was only focusing on the negative, it ruined her mood. Hilary decided to switch the "clicks". Instead of clicking for negative thoughts, she decided she would click the positive. If my memory serves me correctly, one day she had clicked over 1000 times! She was happier. She was stronger. She loved life more. Her circumstances hadn't changed, but her attitude had.

I am determined to try again to focus on the positive. One of the many things that time has not allowed me to do is journal. I will try once again to start. Since Sunday is the one day of the week that I do not work, I believe that it will be the perfect day to release some of my emotional constipation.

And what a wonderful day to start! It is Mother's Day. My wonderful family (click) surprised me with beautiful canvas paintings (click). I love them very much. Landon has been telling me Happy Mother's Day all day. Sometimes he tilts his head and whispers "I love you so much". It is precious. Kaison has been extra cute walking around the house singing "mom mom mom mom mom"! Steven cooked breakfast and dinner to treat me on my special day. Boy, I do love my boys! (click) I have been extremely blessed with a wonderful family. I know in my heart that Heavenly Father knows our circumstances. He has entrusted these 2 angels to me knowing that I would not be the typical "Stay at Home Mom", that I would have to juggle both providing for my family financially and nurturing my boys in the gospel. Heavenly Father has provided me the blessing of earning money from home, so I will be positive and "click". No matter how many hours I have to work, I will always make sure my boys know of my never ending love for them.

My Little Pumpkins

I love fall. I love the crispness in the air. I love how I don't immediately start sweating when I walk outside...in reality, its the only season I go outside. Fall is a beautiful season.

Steven and I were able to take the boys to the pumpkin patch. Landon loved pulling the wagon all around the field of orange. Kaison loved teething on all the gorgeous pumpkins. We picked out one large pumpkin for cooking and 2 baby pumpkins for our little snuggle bunnies.

For Family Home Evening tonight, we used our Nursery Manual to teach Landon about Heavenly Father and his plan for us. It is difficult to get him to focus for long, but he enjoys singing 'I am a Child of God'. He sings so beautifully and he loves to sing songs about the gospel. Recently, he has been walking around the house singing 'I Love to See the Temple'. It brings joy to my heart when I hear his angelic voice sing beautiful songs. What a sweet spirit.

After we did our lesson, we took our pumpkin and dissected it. Landon was excited to see the inside of a pumpkin. He carefully pulled out the strings and made the funniest faces. Landon was grossed out by the texture. We carefully picked out all the seeds and Steven put the pumpkin in the oven.  Steven wants to make pumpkin cheesecake. DELICIOUS!!! I can't wait for him to make this pumpkin treat.