Six years ago today, I became a mom. Today is a good day. Today I get to celebrate my sweet, sweet Hazel and the beginning of the most meaningful part of my eternal existence.

Look at that darling child of mine. - The most attentive newborn I've ever seen.

Now, I need to go to bed TODAY so that I can wake up TODAY and make pink and purple pancakes with blueberries on top! :)

Perfect - how many times can I use it?

Don't you love it when your cable for connecting your camera to your computer is all the way downstairs . . . . :) You finally go get it only to realize that you've picked up the firewire cable (raise your hand if you know what firewire is) instead of the USB.

I hope that's not the kind of day today is destined to be,

because in my opinion, today is meant to be a beautiful, relaxing, PERFECT Fall day; filled with cut grass, planted mums, riding my bike to get Hazel from school, and going to the zoo (don't think too hard about whether or not I used that semicolon correctly).

---- Yep. I've made up my mind. It's going to be perfect . . . regardless.

I just read the most perfect post about the first trimester of pregnancy here. What a strange phase that is. Glad it's over.

I love Fall. I have been aching for Fall for months. SO glad that it's here. Idaho Falls has beautiful Falls . . . usually . . . for a few days. :) Yesterday was a perfect day. With a simple dinner of mac 'n' cheese followed by lounging on the trampoline and hammock wrapped up in blankets and pillows, reading books, and eating homegrown (neighbor's) apples with my Hazel and Lilie.

Does it get more perfect?

Apparently not. As Lilie asked in her prayers for her mommy "tomorrow to be happy like today." :S --- I'm going to look in the bright side of that sweet prayer . . . . . . . . . . and do my best to fulfill it.

Do you ever get a late night craving for fresh, perfect tomatoes (straight from your garden) sliced thick and generously sprinkled with salt and pepper, set between two pieces of buttered, homemade focaccia bread?

Mmmmmmm . . . I mean, who would? Seriously. (((sigh)))

Isn't this what all children should do on a 75 degree afternoon? Sit on the trampoline dividing the goods from your friend's candy sack?

And finally, my little butterfly. She needed both sets of wings to fly (skip-bounce) all around the family room singing, "Mommy, I fwying, fwying, fwying!" And calling herself Peent-o-bew.

I'm a lucky mom. I'm so thankful that I can be at home with my girls! --- Even if I just realized that I don't get to go pick up Hazel on my bike because I have carpool today. I guess now I get to take a shower instead! :)

A Picture of Two Adorable Girls

Just thought I'd share this adorable picture from the Farm this summer. I've yet to get caught up on some of our summer pictures (as we've been playing around with our computers) but here's one.

Hazel and her sweet cousin Karlie.

Cousins are so wonderful!

A Fabulous Friday

Wow. Sometimes I think I will never be a blogger again . . . sad. The baby seems to be sucking my brains. However, I did have a fabulous Friday.

1. Nels took the girls and I out to see a movie tonight. We saw "Cloudy with a Side of Meatballs". It was great. I LOVED the movie. No potty humor, not overdone. Just silly with a great style. Even Elsie sat through it, switching quietly from parent to parent. Definitely recommend it.

2. I volunteered in Hazel's classroom this morning and had fun. It was nice to watch Hazel interact with the other kids. She loves school so much! I think at times she gets a little bored --- waiting for everyone else to finish each instruction before she can move on to the next, but she's just really happy to be there. It makes me think I could totally do kindergarten homeschool and be done in about 1/10th of the time, but Hazel would be devastated. It was nice to watch her. She's such a kind and smart little girl. She's so happy. I love her.

3. My wonderful mother came to visit for two days this week! It was so nice to spend time together! She sort of came to celebrate Hazel and Elsie's birthdays early with them and we made the most FABULOUS carrot cake that I've ever tasted. MMmmmm. I've never really liked carrot cake, but like with many things, it just seems to be one of those things that a lot of people don't make correctly. :) :) LOL! It was a good recipe! On Tuesday we went to Bear World -- about 20 minutes from Idaho Falls. It was a lot of fun. -- Spendy, but a lot of fun. The girls really enjoyed seeing the bears and the elk and petting the deer and goats, but they REALLY enjoyed the free rides afterward. We went about 2 hours before they closed and it's late in the season, so we all but had the whole park to ourselves. An ideal way to go. Thank you SO MUCH, Mom, for coming and loving us. Elsie has been asking for you ever since.

4. We've had a stray cat trying to adopt us for the past month. Thankfully, she's really a very pretty calico -- a little skinny -- but a very nice and well kept cat. -- (Apparently only pretty calico cats want to be part of our family! :) Well last week I was preparing to take her down to the Humane Society - as I don't really want to be adopted and she'd have no problem finding a family - when she disappeared for a few days. Wednesday I saw her a little bit and then that night the girls came running in the house saying there were kittens under our neighbor's shed (right next to our dividing chain-link fence). I knew immediately they must be Flower's kittens. (Yep, my kids christened this stray "Flower" when she would come around every once in a while this spring.) They are probably about 3 or 4 weeks old and needless to say, I'm really glad that I didn't haul her off to the Humane Society. The problem is that I'm a bleeding heart for any kind of needy animal (as can be vouched for by my family). :) Anyhow. I'm kind of excited for my kids (okay, and me) to get to play with these baby kitties for the next little while before I take them all to the Humane Society. :)

5. I've got a few new projects completed and coming up for my bedroom that I'll have to share in a week or so. I'm happy to finally have my bedroom really come together as a completed room! Lots of things that I REALLY like. Things like a turquoise desk, a covered closet, and a sweet little chandelier. As soon as I finish painting the mirrors and making the new pillows, I'll post some pictures. ---- Of that AND the recent accomplishments on our yard. ---- OR any curious people could just come VISIT!!! :) Any and all are always welcome! :)

Friday's Fabulous Five

Haven't done Fabulous Friday in a long time. I think tonight I need to think about fabulous things.

1. I think it's fabulous that . . . although I feel overwhelmed by the mess right now, I know that tomorrow morning, it won't take as long to clean up as it currently feels. :)

2. I am finally getting around to a project that has been two years in the making . . . and one of the easiest that I come up with. I am finally going to make a curtain to hang over our doorless closet. When I had thrown out the black, painted, peeling, metal, floor to ceiling closet doors that originally hung on the closets, I had envisioned quickly building a header and getting REAL doors. That was a while ago. I'm ready to settle for just some good clean pieces of white fabric to cover the chaos. Do you know how messy your room looks with all the junk from your closet constantly glaring at you?

3. Nels has a new "work" computer to do all his freelance jobs on. It's great and fast. - And frees up the other computer all for little old me. Since we don't have a lot of space in our house, this computer is finding a new home - in the corner of my bedroom. --- In the corner that will be occupied by a new/old desk with a new coat of turquoise paint on it. The desk that I will be picking up in the morning; because after taking the middle seat out of the van - all by myself (seriously, our neighbors probably think that I am one . . . ambitious lady :) - I played around on the computer so long that the Youth Ranch Thrift Store had "just barely typed in the code to lock up the place for the night." It will be fabulous to get it and paint it . . . in the morning.

4. Nels will be home tomorrow! I don't care if he works all day on video projects; it will just be nice to have him home! He has worked the last three nights running a video camera at the Eastern Idaho State Fair - and informed me this morning that Huey Lewis says "hi". :) The nights previous to that, he's been working late on various video jobs. I love being a wife - as opposed to a single mom.

5. I got lots of good ideas for different decorating projects today. I'm really looking forward to repainting Hazel and Lilie's room and painting my family room. I just need to get in the groove.

Every Party Has a Pooper . . .

I'm nuts.

I think that could probably be the entire post, but I'll elaborate.

I spent all day Monday finagling different options for travel to Phoenix the following day. Willing, but wanting to avoid, having to drive my car the entire way. After a day filled with different options, I was back where I started and still willing to drive.

Nels came home from a rough day at work. Due to my piddling, my list was not yet completed. The girls were cranky. Nels was going to have to work late the next night.

I felt uneasy. Not in the "if I go, we're all going to die" kind of way, but just not at peace. I also felt guilty. Guilty for leaving Nels during a stressful week, with lists of what needed to be maintained and where Hazel was supposed to be. Guilty for yanking Hazel all over for the entire week - on only her second week of school. Guilty, knowing that we'd have a hectic schedule for the next week, which would be hard on the two coming with me. Guilty for spending all the money. Guilty knowing that it would again take another week to pull myself out of the post-vacation coma.

Nels told me to stop worrying and just go and have fun. But as I sat folding the 73rd load of laundry for the day, I just felt stressed.

And as I imagined staying home and just enjoying all the hard work that I'd put in over the past week --- the clean house, the vegetables from my garden, actually being able to SEE my laundry baskets (let alone the BOTTOM! of them) --- I felt better.

And I don't feel bad or disappointed. I'd love to be together with all of my family tomorrow in the temple and enjoy the beautiful outdoor reception and playing late night games with cousins (Jesse, if you read this, I STILL want you to know I'm sorry :) and swimming in the warm pool with my girls.

But you know, as much fun as it would be for ME, my place is here. And that makes me happy. I'm needed. It makes me so happy to realize that I LOVE being needed. I love my place. I love my life. There will be other parties. There will be other times for vacations. There will be other times for a "break". Right now, I'm needed here.

I love the monotony of every day. The predictability. First off, there's ALWAYS something unpredictable, but I just love knowing my job and doing it well. -- Or at least TRYING to do it well. Learning. I'm so glad I stayed home.