New Babies!

Sorry to subject you all to my craziness - but I'm a biology lover at heart and I just can't contain myself. ----- What am I saying??? This is MY blog. I get to do what I want - you don't have to read it, if you don't want. I just wanted to post a little something that makes me SO happy! I'm so excited about this!



Aren't my babies cute!? I have to post these pictures because who knows how long they're going to last. They may or may not be gone in the next few days - as everyone else in the tank seems to think that they look like a tasty little snack, but maybe! :)


I know that the babies are pretty hard to see, as they are the EXACT color of the sand, but I think they are so fun! There are probably about 25 of them right now.


Also, I just want to say that one of my favorite things about living in Idaho is that we get some REALLY beautiful birds coming through our yard every once in a while. There have been a particularly beautiful pair that have been flitting through out backyard all day today. Here's a picture of what they look like. They are called Western Tanagers. I think they are SO pretty! (By the way, this is not a picture that I took. My batteries got all used up while taking pictures of my new babies! :)

I think the beauty of the world and animals around us is just SO amazing!!! I can't believe how perfect it all is. Birds are incredible to me! I LOVE the patterns that their feathers make! That fish can know how to instinctually know how to take care of their babies. It is amazing to me! --- Just reemphasizes to me that there is a God. --- And he has interest even in these small little animals! The order and perfection is INCREDIBLE.

So much for "Early to Bed . . . "

I really had high hopes tonight . . . :( Well. We started off the night with a bang. After having Family Home Evening - I needed to clean up Lilie's chinie - so I pulled off the bandaid and was greeted with this . . .

SO. I called my mother, the family nurse. Not only is her cut looking hideous, there is a lovely rash spreading across her face where the band-aid has been. She says she's probably just sensitive or allergic to whatever I've been using. So off to the store to get more medical supplies.

I was planning to come straight home and wake up Lilie, doctor her up, and send her back to bed. Instead I gabbed and cried at my mom for the next 2 hours - bless her heart. So, we wake up Lilie at 11:15 and doctor her up - bad choice. Lilie does not wake up well. So I doctor my sweet crying girl who, once back in bed, then proceeds to scratch at her new bandage, crying that it hurts. Get her up again. Clean it and try again. She then is just losing it and so to distract her from the crazies, I promise to sit and watch a movie with her for a while. I ask her if she'd like to watch "Nemo" --- NO. She wants to watch "Star Wars". --- I want to blow my brains out. Why are my children OBSESSED with STAR WARS??? Anyway. In the meantime, she finally falls asleep - but I need to make sure that she stays asleep without pulling her little bandage off --- so here I am. Not asleep. I think we're good now - still earlier than many other nights . . . :)

Two of my Favorite Smells

There are two of my favorite smells wafting through my kitchen this morning.

Fun Little Swimmers

This weekend we decided to take the girls swimming at one of the local hot springs. We had a great time - the girls just LOVE water and it's a lot more fun to take them when the water is 90+ degrees. The girls had such a great time running from one hot pool the other. I wish they had a nice swimming center here in town! (HEY! Any of you entrepreneurs out there!!! There is a GREAT business opportunity here!!!) This area is so family centered, I don't understand why they don't have more family activity-type places here. Hmmm. Anyway. We had a wonderful time!


Lilie made this very cute little drawing of R2D2 on the drive there. I thought it was cute.

And while we're talking about Lilie, check out her CHIN in this last picture!


Last week while Nels and I went to a movie, Lilie was apparently doing some sort of acrobatics on the tub and, of course, slipped and knocked herself on the chiny-chin-chin.
We took her to the doctor the next day to see if she needed stitches (for the second time in year). He said she would probably be fine without them but did decide to glue it up with some derma-bond. Well - we kind of forgot about it before we went swimming and it started to peel a bit. Then it must have started to itch because she scratched the rest of it off yesterday at church. Lovely. So now she is sporting this lovely little bandage with the hope that she doesn't end up with ANOTHER lovely scar on her pretty, little, happy face. :)

Oh, What a Beautiful Morning!

You know, one of the things that I have been diligently working on for the past 4 years is getting up earlier. It is amazing the amount of work that you can get completed in the morning! I can get more done between the hours of 7 to noon than I can the entire rest of the day combined. I don't know why this is . . . maybe the lighting in the morning is conducive to be being productive or maybe the mood in the home just works better, I don't know, but early to bed, early to rise works wonders for me in my life. This realization first occurred to me when Hazel was probably about 1. And I've been working hard on it since. For any of you that know me well at all, it's no big surprise that I'm a night-owl. I LOVE to stay up. I think I might even be addicted to it. :) But throughout my up times and down times, this truth has been reiterated to me time and time again.

Let me illustrate. This morning I got up at 6:45 from that time until about 9:45 I was able to complete the following:

GET READY for the DAY!!!

Clean the bedroom

Make the bed

Vacuum bedrooms and living room

Get Elsie ready for the day

Unload the dishwasher

Load the dishwasher

Clean the kitchen counters

Sweep floor

Clean the living room

Make breakfast

Make bread

Do a load of laundry

Clean the family room

Family scripture study and prayer

Put Elsie down for a nap

How fantastic is that??? What a great day.