OH Man!

Is he growing!! This little man has me so wrapped around his sweet little finger I can hardly breathe. He's my baby and I'll never, never let him grow up. Ever. And that's final.

So stop growing already you beautiful little boy!
If I could have ten more just exactly like you...
OH be still my heart. Please excuse me. I have to go kiss my baby now. And breathe in his baby smell. And pretend that he'll never, ever grow up and move away.

Running...

Do you ever have so much to say that you can't find the words to say anything at all? Well that's me. Right now. Life is busy and I'm just trying to keep up.

I think these pictures sum it up nicely. I'll call this one "insanity in motion" or maybe just "woman". Often I think they're one and the same.

By the way, I love it when my husband throws maturity to the wind and acts silly with me! Any mental health I claim is a direct result of his influence.

Because I'm random and totally ok with that, here is a really fun show to watch. It's the new Masterpiece Theatre Sherlock Holmes series and it's really good! An exciting, clean mystery is not so easy to find these days. Enjoy!

Friday night

Brent took Tyler to his first car show tonight. For the record, my little man lives and breathes for anything on four wheels. So I'm waiting up.. because even though I know he'll be asleep when Brent carries him in from the car, I just have to hear how it went. How much Ty loved it. I've been smiling all night just thinking about it.

My favorite quote from Conference this past weekend;

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication"

Leonardo DaVinci

And who says your pictures have to match your words? I'm so not into that. I dusted off my camera today after a month long hiatus.. because the afternoon light was pretty.

goodbye summer!

Not sure if I'm sad or glad to see the summer end. A little of both I guess.. It's been too long since I've posted to really catch up but here's my best effort..

• Owen is now pounding down rice cereal like a champ
• I'm caffeine free for five days and counting
• Lauren started kindergarten. We've had both good days and bad
• I'm currently feeling guilty for not homeschooling
• I painted my fingernails today for the first time in forever
• That has absolutely nothing to do with anything
• Brent bought me a bike for our ten year anniversary
• I've ridden it approximately once since I got it three weeks ago
• I really want to ride it but who the heck has time for bike riding anyway!?

And with that I'll say goodbye.

Forgiveness: My Burden Was Made Light

Enjoy, friends. I know I did.

perspective

I woke up this morning and did the following:

changed the baby, fed the baby, bathed the baby

thought about reading my scriptures

broke up a fight instead

fed the rest of the kids

cleaned up the mess

twice.

dressed everybody

put two kids in time out

"encouraged" everybody to do their chores

three hundred times over

lost my temper

apologized

thought about exercising

folded laundry instead

fed myself

didn't dress myself or take a shower

sat down to work on a project

just in time for the baby to wake up

changed the baby, fed the baby....

And I thought about something Oliver Wendell Holmes said: "Many people die with their music still in them. Why is this so? Too often it is because they are always getting ready to live. Before they know it, time runs out."

I wonder about this as I see my sketch pad lying empty. And then think to myself.. right now my music is raising my children. I'm not "getting ready to live" as Mr. Holmes said, because I'm too busy in the middle of it!

And I hunger for free time like a starving woman sometimes.. but in the end they need me. Always urgently and always now. So I give.. and another wall in my heart breaks down. And I'm one step closer to my Savior. I suppose this is called "giving yourself to God". And it's what I want. It's just so much harder than I ever thought it would be!

black and white

Is it bad blog etiquette to delete some random, crazy post you wrote as a sleep deprived, lactating, hormonal mess? Umm.. sorry I said lactating. And hormonal. But hey, it is what it is. So if you read my previous post.. sorry for the drama. It happens to me sometimes and no, I'm not medicating. But I probably should be.

Let's just skip to the photography question shall we? So there's this lady who takes the prettiest pictures and she always shoots directly into the setting sun. Her pictures look so soft and, and.. ethereal. But when I try it, the sun reflecting off my lens overexposes everything. I had to fix the light levels on all these pictures, but that said, I was still pleased with the result. Although they look nothing like hers.

And that's a fake knife Ty's wielding! No sister's were hurt in the shooting of these pictures. Just chased around a lot. All in good fun right?